Just a thought that popped into my head while watching one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. During one of the naval battles the British navy seemed very organized as far as ship maneuvers. I know this was just a movie but how would that play out in real world applications for the time period?
In: Technology
Discipline was very tight on ships. Everyone were to execute orders given to them without hesitation. Refusing an order in battle could be punishable by death. They also had a lot of training exercises while out at sea. Every man was trained so that he could do his job without thinking and then he was trained in doing the job of everyone else if it was required. So even if an entire team of men were lost they could be replaced with people from other teams that did not have anything more useful to do at that moment within a few seconds. Most of the orders were standing orders given long before the fights and had been drilled into the crew and officers during all the training. That means that when they get to the chaos of battle there is not really much more to organize as everyone would just do as planned.
This all also applies to the captains and other high ranking officers who would be getting similar standing orders from the admiral. How to maneuver and who to shoot at in battle is pretty much described in the standing orders. Either the instructions that lay out the best practices of the day or if the battle were planned they would be able to have standing orders of that battle. Most common practices is to just follow in a line behind the flag ship so that the admiral can actually control where everyone is moving and then shoot at whatever target presents itself. Usually if two lines meet up the flag ships shoot at each other, the second ships in line shoots at each other and so on. The line does also have a rear admiral trailing the line of ships who takes over command if the fleet have to turn around.
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