Naval battle AI

[IsItStillThere]

Starting with the 1vs.1 naval battle scenario. I have four ships. If I group them and click the line formation button, they all start turning in random directions. So, I restart the battle, figuring they are already in that formation. I group them again, then give sailing orders to the first ship in line. The rest of the ships ignore the orders.

Grouping the ships and giving them other formation orders leads to equally random results. They never actually end up in formation.

Thanks for any advice you can give!