In Pirates!, when you do certain things, or "bonus" tasks, you get bonus doubloons. You use these doubloons in the main menu gallery option. Most sections of the gallery are locked though. You unlock them by buying certain objects in the 2nd and so on sections of the gallery. I will tell you which ones exactly. This has been tested on 3 different boxes and we haven't encountered any abnormalities or randomness yet.
begin game with the ship of the line (the best ship in the game) and a full crew.
D.Gackey
dueling invincibility
Dragon Ma
Jeff Briggs as Abbott
Firaxis
Sid Meier as Mysterious Stranger
Max Remington
No matter how badly you do at dancing, the Governor's daughters always love you!
Scooter
Your fleet sails twice as fast as everyone else's
Sprinkler
Food Never Dwindles
Sweet Tooth
7/31/2006
Talk Like a Pirate Day
If your system date is correct (or if you set it so), on 19th September is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. On this day, the in game text dialogue is all in 'pirate' talk i.e. lots of 'ye' 'avast' 'yargh' 'arrr' and 'shiver me timbers'.