Hmm, that makes sense. I have to admit I always scuttle anything under a 6th rate at the beginning of the game; the maintenance cost just doesn't seem worth it relative to the combat performance.

Sadly, I seem to have lost my saves from my old campaign where I got stuck with this problem, so it's not really practical to test it. In my new British campaign, I'm a long way from invading anything in the European sphere of operations. I am curious, doesn't the AI just move the fleet back into the harbour after the battle?