I say... a pile of pirates living on a collection of derelicts strapped together, floating on the currents with no control.
Say, a few decades ago, a naval battle ensued, ships were sinking left and right, and so those fleeing the battle attempted to keep themselves afloat by capturing and tying other damaged ships to their own... managing to stay afloat, they have no control over where they go, merely floating on the tides...
Perhaps they have a couple small, fast craft to lure larger ships in. With no mobility, they must blast the ships with cannons in a quick surprise attack. Thus, they never acquire a fully functional ship, but manage to maintain status quo and supplies. If they should fail, they end up in a pitched battle on their small "island".
The PC's must battle their way through the ever changing and decaying landscape of barely afloat dying ships.
Maybe the galleon you mention is a ship lured there, and the PC's must fight a three way battle: the derelict pirates, the pirates of the galleon, and of course the party.
Boats rot rapidly if not maintained. I wouldn't go with a lot of ships tucked together.
Pick one big ship. You can easily have a bunch of stuff on the ship:
1) pirates in the rigging on watch (more pirates if the PCs fail to be sneaky while approaching). Shoot at PCs while they approach, drop stuff on them, swing down on ropes. You might have 3-4 pirates up on the maintop doing a private dice game and not noticing something unless the PCs are really blatant. (Maybe the watchman is drunk?)
2) a wild animal of some sort, caged, on the deck (maybe a pirate opens the cage, maybe the beast smashes through if provoked, maybe a PC releases it) -- will mostly rampage, but a clever PC might be able to speak with the animal and get it to take revenge on its pirate captors (especially if it's obviously been beaten or starved reentry).
3) a shark or three circling the boat, will attack anyone who goes in the water but isn't otherwise a threat. (Maybe there's an evil druid among the pirates and this is his animal companion? Maybe it's just been eating slaves thrown overboard? Maybe it's a celestial shark here to eat pirates that get tossed into the water?)
4) A number of undead down below (maybe they're enslaved by the necromancer captain, maybe a bunch of tortured captives out for revenge, maybe they're contained in locked boxes that won't be opened unless the PCs are defeating the pirates)
5) The pirate captain, in his cabin busy drinking and welching with the other officers (so he doesn't notice anything until the fight starts, and then he takes some time to get his armor on). If you want to be nice to the PCs he's drunk and at -2 to everything, but he and 2-3 of his cohorts could be a nasty set of opponents (much tougher than regular pirate books)
6) an evil spell caster of some sort, currently asleep and difficult to wake (he's got earplugs stuffed in because he doesn't want to be annoyed by the Captain's carousing on the decks above, or maybe he's carrying out a particular rite that Must Not Be Disturbed, either way he doesn't show up until well into the battle because nobody dares disturb him unless it's really desperate). He might have an ally or two (summoned creatures, an evil advanced familiar, some kind of companion, or just a charmed/dominated cohort/apprentice/something).
7) oh, and the whole ship is consecrated to some evil pirate deity with an unhallow spell that all the pirates benefit from. Clever intelligence gathering beforehand will let the PCs know that the mainmast has a carving in it that curses enemies (the focus of the unhallow spell) and if they can do something about that carving, they can break the enchantment that's helping their foes.
8) Well-disciplined pirates might have a guard boat rowing around the ship with some alert pirates in it -- but PCs could bribe the pirates on the boat, or find a way to take the boat out before it can raise a warning...
Dot. If only for the fact that I can dig up around 15 of these things.
Iceberg. The ship was wrecked in the arctic and frozen in the ice. The ship now rests at the top of a massive iceberg surrounded by a fog bank.
The undead crew has dug a series of tunnels into the ice and use captured ships for raiding.
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the ship was caught during a horrific tidal storm and froze itself avatar-style. upside-down.
haunted by its crew, which are all walking on the floors, rather than the ceiling (where the party is), and the ghosts are curious as to how they got up there.
'nother interesting dungeon if its seemign too small: lots of boats lashed together (think pirates of the caribbean: at world's end). why? nest of driders have taken to piracy. they float along, and any ships they plunder are added to the ship itself (via webbing). crew members of said ships are later sold into slavery. party could be sent to investigate the disappearance of a merchant ship, which the quest-giver assures you isn't haunted, no-siree
a massive clockwork vessel of ancient origin, the likes of which haven't been seen in thousands of years... make it bigger and badder than any ordinary ship. populate it with pirates trying to take it as their own, plus various clockwork horrors still defending their dead ship of long dead civilizations.
A room full of parrots that try to make you crazy with their voices, if they succeed they convince you to attack party members or run away. And a intelligent monkey stuff (material components, daggers, coins, rings)
A flotilla could be cool. Ships bound together as a moving dock for other pirates. A pirate consortium if you will.