The following seems to be quite common when trying to catch some NPC ships:
The SKE Neptune's Ghost sails in from the southeast.
Gul tells you 'Raisin' tha anchor now, Cap'n!'
Gul tells you 'Aye aye, Cap'n, layin' in pursuit now!'
The SKE Neptune's Ghost sails away to the northwest.
Gul tells you 'Unable ta' spot tha Neptune's Ghost!
'
Gul tells you 'We can'nae progress towards Neptune's Ghost ena'more.'

So a ship comes to room, I lay on pursuit, ship moves once and I can't see it
any more. Happens on tradelanes at least with faster ships at least. I have
succesfully pursued bigger ships on tradelanes. So could the pursue distance
be increased? If the ship is faster than mine, I'd at least like to get a
chance for chasing the ship for a while before the ship disappears to horizon.

Ok. I was informed that I was trying to chase a ferry. My bad. It has been too
long since I've used those it seems. But after writing that article I've had
couple tells complaining about being unable to pursue a ship. Most likely at
least one of those has been against non-ferry.

But even though the ship I was trying to pursue was a ferry it would be nice
that I could at least try to pursue those also.