Setting up an Information gathering Network in the Shackles

[HawktheOneHanded]

Our ship was stolen with all my gear aboard it. This has pissed me off to no end. I want to start up an information gathering network to not only get it back, but to punish the individuals behind it. I have no idea how to go about doing this though. I am a sorcerer, not a rogue.
In real life, I loathe politics and the concept of spying. In most roleplaying campaigns I've been in over the years, I try to find ways of "accidentally" killing spies and rogues once we get the info we need, rather than trading them for hostages, wealth etc... Unfortunatley, my current dm LOVES political intrigue and backstabbing. It has been a part of the campaign since day one. Feels like we are playing Game of Thrones on the Sea.
My predicament is that since politics and intrigue are so foreign and vile to me, I have no concept of how to go about this. My sorcerer skills and spells are also not suited to political intrigue. I am more of a plunder ships, take the booty, pay off the right people for info and then hit my enemies when they are unaware, honor and fairness be damned!
My fellow PCs have already started their own plots. They all seem capable of doing what they are planning. The captain thinks that my original plan of "secretly" plotting against him for being a weak captain, while actually working for them from the shadows, is too cliched to work.
Anyone have any suggestions?

[Cevah]

*raise thread*

I am using the Leadership feat for this. I have a good Cha and such, so I have lots of low level followers. I have been collecting a few at each port, and have arranged magical communication to keep in touch.

If you go this route, let your cohort be your spymaster and your followers the spies. Tell the GM that you personally cannot hack the details, and want to assign that duty to the cohort. Then have the cohort report info as available.

/cevah

[Errant Mercenary]

The Shackles is a very cut-throat place, where not only the strongest, but the smartest, prevail. Stealing ships is something that seems very doable. I will see how my players handle a couple of incidents of it, in very different manners.

Now, for the "solution". Have you got access to Divination? Scry on an object or person, such as the ship or someone from the crew you know was in the deal.

While spies and such might not be your thing, focus it this way: what you will do when you have the opportunity to take it back. Just take the ship back? Crush the fleet of those that did? Plenty space here to do it in a short, cruel way that denotes how your character has been mulling about this.

[Purple Dragon Knight]

If any of the officers in your crew were spellcasters, it seems extremely unlikely or downright bordering on idiocy that they would not have prepared for this and have a copy of track ship on a scroll somewhere (2nd level spell; Pathfinder Player Companion: Pirates of the Inner Sea)