Vinyl is the way to go. If you're handy enough to be swapping out the casing, you're handy enough to put in a pre-built windowframe, and I think last time I bought one it was only in the $100 range, which is probably only slightly more than you'd pay for new casing lumber, caulk, and paint, and it'll last much longer.

Slave ship or not, there's a good chance the crew was able to make it off the boat, even if they didn't make it all the way to shore.

But if it was a slave ship, they probably left the "cargo" chained up below deck.

Exactly. If you use wire that's rated for less than the breaker's capacity, yes, that's bad.

This guy's talking about using a 40-amp breaker, with a mix of 60-amp wire and 40-amp wire. There's no concern there, because the most that will go through that 40-amp wire is 40 amps.