User blog comment:J Fan/Before going On Stranger Tides/@comment-3574741-20121227230731/@comment-996391-20121228101109

''As for Barbossa, I can only guess that England was very desperate. Perhaps the Brits were betting that the pirate, now older, decided to reconcile for his sins with service to the crown.''
 * I always thought that he did some great service to the Crown which earned him the position in the King's Navy. Remember that Norrington brought the Heart of Davy Jones to Beckett which earned him a promotion to the rank of admiral. So I think that Barbossa did something similar.