That is also how I intend to play it but the wording irks me.
Because the cost is stated first, and then there's the issue of marking down/tracking talents you have "learned", but not yet paid the XP cost for.
Learning a talent always costs 5 XP. It also requires a day of practice and a successful WITS roll (roll for the attribute only). You can make one attempt per day. If instructed by a teacher who has the talent, your roll succeeds automatically The way I read it, those 5 XP are per attempt. Can anyo...
I could only find this when checking the PDF: Page 28 LEARNING SKILLS AND TALENTS When you’ve gathered 5 XP, you can take an advance. An advance is either increasing a skill level by 1 , or learning a new talent. You can never raise a skill level above 5. So by RAW you can freely purchase the first ...
They could scuttle it, leave it as is, strip it of useful parts (requires a salvage station, iirc).
It all depends on their goals and motivation for being pirates in the first place.