Generally you'd expect the officers to be fairly literate. Several of the officer jobs have literacy as practical requirement (navigation, quartermaster, log keeping, etc.), so while the organization of a pirate crew is less regular than something like Royal Navy where officers are all upperclassmen and thus literate, a pirate crew is much more a meritocracy. The officers receive their commissions from the crew who would not suffer an incompetent in an officer role. Most pirate officers would have learned their trade as officers or officers' mates on naval or merchant vessels and would thus come from backgrounds where they have learned to read and write and would continue in such roles since they would be the most competent to fill such roles.
Statistics: Posted by x-viila — 21 May 2025 12:23