Anyone who has ever purchased training tomes knows that you cannot purchase more than ten training tomes. In fact, if you already have three from a recent promotion, it won't let you purchase more than seven, until such time as those tomes are used.

Also, if you do any Keel Haulin', you discover that it will lock the Keel Haulin' ability if the total number of companions you have out Keel Haulin' plus the total number of training tomes you have is equal to ten.

This would seem to limit the number of training tomes you can have to ten, right?

Well, no, it turns out.

First of all, if you earn training tomes through completion of a quest that has a training tome as a reward, it will add that to your total, regardless of how many you have. Same with the three you get when you go up a level. So, you obviously can hold more than 10, often as many as 15 or more when you go up a level.

Is that the limit?

Again, no.

See, if you send ten companions out Keel Haulin' the game then locks the Keel Haulin' ability, but the game does NOT prevent you from buying training tomes. So, if you send out ten companions Keel Haulin' then purchase ten training tomes, once they come back from Keel Haulin, you could have at least 20 training tomes, more if you then get promoted or complete quests.

So, is THAT the limit?

Apparently not.

See, once a companion comes back from Keel Haulin' they are no longer considered out Keel Haulin' BUT if you don't collect the training tome, it is not considered in your total number of training tomes. So, once one comes back, you can send out another Keel Haulin' as long as the total number out plus the number you have actually collected either by earning, companion orders, or purchases is less than ten. None of the companions who have completed Keel Haulin' but have yet to have the training tome collected count in any total.

What this means is that as long as you don't collect training tomes or purchase them, or earn them, you could send out all of your companions Keel Haulin' eventually (assuming they are all the same level as your pirate) and even then purchase ten more.

So, it appears that the total number of training tomes you can actually have is the total number of companions you have plus ten plus whatever you then earn from quests and raising your level.

Now, likely, the only time you would want to do this is when your pirate reaches the level cap (right now it's 65) so you can make a ready supply of training tomes for when they raise the cap.

Well, as far as HOLDING them, no, there is probably not a limit. But once you have 10 Training Tomes in your possession, or ten companions out Keel Haulin', or any combination of those that adds up to ten, the Keel Haulin' order gets locked. Now, you go out and buy things in the crown shop that come with Training Tomes, yeah, you probably can get more.

But let's assume you just went up a level, and used all the training tomes you had, so you are down to zero. You send all your companions out Brawlin' until they are up to the same level. You then send ten out Keel Haulin'. The order gets locked. When one finishes with Keel Haulin', you send out a different one, and don't collect from the other. You repeat this until all of your companions are either out Keel Haulin' or are holding an uncollected Tome. You then buy ten, and collect the Tomes from the companions. You now have a number equal to the number of companions plus ten. You get three more when you go up another level, and get three more, in addition to any you got doing quests that handed out Tomes as a reward.

Any more than that, and you have to use crowns.