I have a decent boatswain (melee 6) that has all of the pistol abilities preset. I bought him a quad pistol and gave it to him. When in my party, he doesn't load it. When I boarded a ship with him, he didn't shoot it. Can officers even use pistols? It would be a shame if I just wasted 10,000 gold. Thanks for any replies.

sometimes that happens....does he already have a gun? officers will use a scrapper/dual over a quad. try taking it off him and giving it back again or give him a better gun, in my experience a scrapper is best for the captain and officers should have dual pistols. hope this helped