8-9 Person Ship Building Guide - from beta forum

--Shipwright--
(10 slots)
Master Shipyard (4 slots) (lvl45 Free Trader)
Lumber Mill
Textile Mill
Master Draughtman's Office
Forge
Granite Quarry
Weaponsmith

The Master Shipyard currently has insane productivity (that of 5 Large Shipyards), so it's a must for any serious operation. Shipwright is capable of finishing most items for other players if they run short of labour.

--Sailmaster--
(10 slots)
4x Plantation (Hemp)
2x Textile Mill
--
Logging Camp, Fir
Tar Distillery
Lumber Mill
Carpenter

Will generally run a little short on lumber mill capacity (the Shipwright has a spare one), and tar. Needs leather from the Provisioner-beta.

--Lumberjack--
(8 slots)
3x Logging camp, Oak
3x Lumbermill
Logging Camp, Teak
--
Logging Camp, Ironwood

Fabricates all the components needed for ship hulls, getting nails and such from the Shipwright. Fabricate Structural Braces with extra Teak and Ironwood.

--Ironsmith--
(10 slots)
2 Iron Mine
4 Forge
--
4 Limestone Quarry

Produces 240 iron ingots a day. The use of Advanced Iron Smelting trade skill frees up a total of 24 hours a day Forge time for making Nails, Mast Hoops, etc. Iron is primarily used for cannons and ship fittings, with some given to the Provisioner to make barrels. If you need ammunition, you'll need more iron production (another 5 slots).

--Brass Weaponsmith-- Free Trader
(8 slots)
Copper Mine
2 Forge
--
Zinc Mine
2 Advanced Forge
Weaponsmith
--
Sulfur Mine (unneeded with Powder Monkey)

Produces 60 Ingots, Brass a day, which is considerably more than you require, but brass has numerous other uses. Only uses 1.5 Advanced Forges so there is extra capacity there for Brass Fittings -- obviously one can do without the advanced forges if need be. The single weaponsmith can turn out 24,000 Bronze Round Shot a day, consuming 48 Ingots, Brass and 240 Black Powder, or the cannons necessary for a 'Pommern' frigate. Brass manufacturing can technically be done with 3.1 advanced forges, but it means hauling the copper ore.


--Provisioner-alpha--
(10 slots)
2x Provisioner
1x Plantation (General)
3x Plantation (Sugar)
2x Grain Mill
Sugar Refinery
Rum Distillery

Trade 42 Sugar in Tortuga Or San Juan for 23 Wine, Common. Grinding faction can improve this ratio. Produces a considerable excess of Rum for the purpose of running the skill Rum Ration or producing Kegs of Rum. This one may be changed slightly as we will be Spanish, and the Cochinal or whatever it is, may be easier to produce. Sugar is still used in the process, but we might be able to trim down some structures.

--Provisioner-beta & Leather--
(10 slots)
Fishing Shack
Hunting Lodge
Slaughterhouse
2x Tanner
Carpenter
Logging Camp (Oak)
--
3x Plantation (General)

Flexible build that fills out the Provisioner's needs and also produces leather for rigging -- 17 leather/day, The 'Pommern' recipe uses 12, so there's about 8/day extra (barely sufficient for minimal hull patch useage by 9 players). The Hunting Lodge pathway is more expensive than Pasture, but produces more leather per slot, which is all that matters.

Carpenter has extra time for Mast & Hull Patches, oak blocks, etc after barrel production. The utilization of the Fishing Shack and the Slaughterhouse is terrible, but that is unavoidable. Getting rid of the Logging Camp for another Plantation is desirable but it forces the provisioners to depend on the Lumberjack for this, and it makes the Sugar Refinery the bottleneck.

--Powder Monkey--
(10 slots)
Sulfur Mine
--
Saltpeter Cave
x3 Powder Mill
x5 Weaponsmith

Production of 144 black powder per day. Produces powder charges, solid shot, disabling and anti-personal ammunition, with iron requisitioned from an 5-slot ironsmith (can technically split this between a Brass Weaponsmith -- who already has a ton of forges -- and Lumberjack). Can also handle the cannon production easily. Hold all extra Sulfur for ship production.