I've just downloaded the game onto my laptop, which has no numberpad. I saw the post about changing the key bind settings but would like to use my controller instead, if possible. Can anyone help?

Thank you

I have a similar situation; there are a few options you can try:
remap the key configs to non-NumPad values. In your game settings folder, you can open a text editor and remap all the places it wants 1,2,3 to be, say, x,c,v.

You can use AntiMicro, an opensource application thatremaps controller inputs into keyboard inputs.

Or, you can purchase the commercial reWASD, which does the same as AntiMicro but has more robust support if there are additional questions.

I'd start with remapping the keyboard inputs in Pirates! "KeyMap" folder.