a Nuclear aircraft carrier might be a good initial base to expand from.
of course, a way to flag it, or protect it is the critical question.
but all questions have answers, just some are super complicated.
Flagged by a any Nation initially, then.........
anybody read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress?"
the Moon began as an Earth colony, then found out how to protect itself,
some things just take a long time to evolve,
the nay sayers on this subject, would have been the same nay sayers decades ago telling us that there can be no such thing as a FREE CURRENCY internationally used not controlled by any Government................
Most pirate bands have no guns and many that do have guns don't have many bullets or just have 1 gun So defense from pirates is not as big an issue any more unless you plan on going from port to port Because then you can't have guns on your ship But since we don't plan on docking anywhere we can have a small arsenal to defend from pirates And slowly develop a cheap long range defense like catapults or something but we don't want to start training snipers or anything just in case they get bored and turn their scope on the ship for a half hour while everyone tries to disarm them Having the rifles is not a bad idea but specializing someone for nothing but that is not a good idea