I know that you can lose ships through the skirmish options. However, is it possible that if I skirmish a player with no gold I can take his/her ships?

I don't think that's how skirmish works - as one cannot lose levels, one cannot lose ships in a skirmish. The following is from the "How Skirmish Works" page:

b)A gold loot is applied, equal to the Cargo Value
This gold loot is removed from defender's treasury. If defender's treasury is less than the gold loot, then he pays as much as his treasury has minus 1. This means that Skirmishes can return 0 earnings.

But if you LOSE a skirmish, that's the same as losing a plunder. So if you have 0 gold, do a skirmish and lose, I think you will indeed lose a ship.

Haron wrote:But if you LOSE a skirmish, that's the same as losing a plunder. So if you have 0 gold, do a skirmish and lose, I think you will indeed lose a ship.

If you skirmish me and you have 0 gold and you lose I'll claim you ship.
But
If you skirmish me and I have 0 gold you'll gain no ship.


And the fame gained is half of total gold plundered. So no gold,no fame and no ships.


"Pirates life matters."