Everything's different...

[Kat Five Knives]

I can't say what happened to your POF account but if you logged into the test server for the first time, then it is normal to have no pirates. When you are on the test server, your pirates there are completely separate from your original pirates. I imagine if you log onto the live server, your pirates will still be there. On the test server, you have to start from scratch, but it is a privilege to be there and you need to expect that sometimes things will not work right (fill out a bug report when they don't) and sometimes your progress will be set back a few days and you may have to redo a few things.

Good luck! ( And welcome back, mate!)