Bill:
Strider is on the right track for the first few things to check out. <Thanks Strider!> If there is no crew allocated (or not enough) to sailing, the vessel may not be able to hoist the anchor. Or, it is possible that the anchor is up, and the closest ‘movement markers’ are on the map, but they are hard to see due to angle & ship display size.
However, it is also possible that you have found ‘One For The List.’ The ‘Fix List’ that is. So – please let us know if the above helps.
Whoops – I almost answered your question without even answering your actual question. <Huh?> OK – The answer is a definitive YES. <And that may be the actual situation and save me from adding to The List.> Ship damage CAN affect a ship’s ability, and more importantly, high Disruption (over 100%) will prevent some actions from taking place. Capturing a ship automatically puts that ship into massive Disruption because you need some time to sort out the mess and get your skeleton crew in place to make the native crew do the work. Now – In this specific situation, the ranking officer who boarded the English ship gave the order to drop the anchor. That’s easy GRAVITY drops the anchor – no crew needed. Hoisting the anchor requires a coordinated effort of a group of sailors – so that may have been beyond the means of the ship.