You hire a helmsman in charthouse (button in the bottom left). Then you sail out of the port, enter cabin, view map, lay in course, go back on deck and click button above small map. As for higher ranks, apart from good stats, sometimes you're also required to have estate.
I've been playing this games for past week and I've seen all this game has to offer. Although you can advance in ranks (you must if you want to buy better ship), there's not much to do except trading. Fights are often frustrating and missions aren't interesting or profitable. You cannot affect politics or attack any port (they disappear along with land once you enter attack mode). This has to be the only game where you loose money by investing it in bank! The game is not so bad, ie. graphics are nice and you get to sail around the world, but after a while you realise there's no strategy involved. It starts out great, but there're no new options as you gain profit. All you do is compare prices and fight pirates.
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Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul,
ash nazg thrakatuluk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul
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