Pirate Crew Strength

I am trying to work out just how high you can get your pirate crew strength. My crew is 300 all well fed,all with swords.pistols,shields and vests.But not elite equipment!!.

When they all had elite equipment (which took ages to do) my crew strength was not as high as it is now?????

Let me know please what your crew strength is and what items you have given them or done to arrive at that figure.

My crew strength is 2529 for 300 crew with 8 elite officers.

Thanks

Wolf

Same crew (300) and similar strength (2538) for me with ordinary gold-equipment