Whenever anything strange happens, or if you crash while starting or when tp'ing, always delete your cache folder.
The cache folder is where the games places graphics textures and other resources that it uncompresses from the phase files. If files become corrupted, deleting the folder forces the game to re-uncompress the files to recreate the folder.
Black objects in the game are caused by the game being unable to find the texture map that is supposed to be applied there.
If this does not work, a phase file might be damaged, to fix that, you would need to re-install the game.
It sounds like you are playing the browser version of the game, the cache folder is in a different location. Here is the browser cache location on Windows 7 (might be the same for Vista and XP, I don't know)
C:/Users/{
insert your profile name here}/AppData/LocalLow/Panda3D/start/pirates
Replace {
insert your profile name here} with the name of the computer profile you are currently logged on to.
The cache folder is inside the last folder in that address. Just right click on the Cache folder and delete it, then restart the game.
If you're lucky, that will fix it. Doing this fixes about 1/3 of the problems many people have and it is quick and easy to do, always give it a try.
Some people even say the game runs smoother for them if the delete it before each game or once a week. Myself, I only delete it when something is amiss. It has cured quite a variety of ills for me.
