Before buying the GOG pack today, I hadn't played Pirates! or Pirates! Gold in fifteen years or so, so it's possible my memory is faulty here, but there are features I remember using that are missing from the game in this pack!

I remember being able to move cannon and men between ships when choosing my flagship.
I remember being able to use grape shot or chain as ammo types during ship battles.
I remember being able to view an info screen that listed the last known prices for trade goods in all the cities, and it got updated every time you got news of a city or you visited the city.

Am I dreaming, or is there another version that I was playing?

You are dreaming. Or maybe you played the 2004 Remake.

Sort of reminds of the Pirates of the Carribean Action-RPG I played back in '03.

Sounds like he´s confused with the 04 remake.

I remember being able to choose type of shot to be fired from cannons, too, and I've never played the 2004 remake (or even the Pirates! Gold remake before).

I only had the original 1987 Pirates! game, which I believe I played on the C-64 though it's possible it was on MS-DOS instead.

Corsairs has all those functions...

I wish GOG would have Corsairs, I loved that game. At any rate, no different types of shot in Pirates! until 2004.

GOG has Corsairs.

Dammit, I meant Cutthroats. I wish GOG would have Cutthroats.

Never played Corsairs.