After playing a long game where I had everything research, I noticed this ability was basically worthless. It was giving me maybe 6-7 ships at my homeworld...every 30 minutes or so. This is at a stage in the game where players can build 300 supply of ships in a minute or so. I know in the beta this and the pirate call-ins were scaled back, but while the pirates were rebalanced it seems this abilty was totally forgotten about.
It either needs to kick in much more frequently, or it needs to give a significant supply of ships. Keep in mind this is a tier 8 ability with a tier 8 prereq.