There's a quest from the emporium to kill or take them alive. Be warned; if you kill em, then you get teleported off the ship as it sinks. Take them alive (with the rope and pole provided) and you get a reward when you take them back to the quest giver. I don't think you can take the actual ship, but you can certainly loot it. My share of last nights booty was, well, never mind, you'll have far more fun finding that out for yourself