Quote Originally Posted by Assertn
The old man could not have been a prisoner until just recently, because he was working in the shop until a few months ago, when he wandered off...


Which makes me think that he must've either really done something wrong. Or that he was really wanted and finally the auctioneers found him out and wanted a huge piece of the cut from the sell off, so they jailed him. For the most part though, I think he just wanted to be caught and spend some time there away from the world. Because in all honesty, if you were the pirate kings former first mate, with that skill and power, would you want to be known all over the world. Or in a town like that?