Aye, not knocking the spirit you mentioned but I've seen that depiction of the return of Hong Kong before, presented as fact, and it's not correct. :¬)

I think you mean HM Navy, by the way (the S is for ship) and it's not quite right, either; the privateers were not part of the navy and were resented and even fired upon by naval vessels as they often broke the law and endangered treaties (sacking the vessels of neutral nations or even allies, for example) but you're probably confusing that idea with Prize Money, which was a real part of RN life until relatively recently. The Royal Navy was a well-disciplined and well-fed, for the most part, fighting force. This is rather contrary to popular imagination and many novels, screenplays and so on but I don't suppose reality made for such good drama, eh? As an aside, there were frequently women onboard, too, sometimes even as actual serving crew. Consider how much use a bunch of half-trained, malnourished men would be, furthermore, imagine how hard it would be to keep discipline on the ship with a crew so composed, even with the marine guard.

All that said, the popular dramatic treatment of these themes is absolutely spot-on, I reckon, for Rogue Trader, but it's nice to remember the truth, especially if you wonder just how a Rogue Trader would keep control of his crew fear, mythological status and custom only go so far when you're hungry and even more scared of what you might be ordered to do next, whereas a well-fed, well-treated and well-paid (relatively anyway) crew will believe you when you tell them that they're the best of the best, giants amongst men and the envy of the Imperial Battlefleet.

As for the 1898 vs 1997 question, one word: America. :¬)