got this idea from my AAR:
basically, you bid for damaged ships (cause bidding for new ones would get way too costly =P), have something like salvage ships look around for undercrewed ships and nab them, and sell them off at auction stations (or shipyards willing to hold such auctions) maybe just as in my AAR, your reputation with the people at the auction station will influence if they will actually hand it over to you or not accept your bid at all, and at shipyards with military personnel, the more "seasoned" captains get precedence over the newly initiated captains(so say, you're level 8, and bidding against a level 9 and 7, the auctioneer will likely take the lvl 9s bid over yours, but if he liked you more than 9, then he will take yours, etc etc.)