In real life, I enjoy photography. In Naval Action, I enjoy taking screen shots.
It would be great if you could enter a game as a non-combatant and maneuver your point of view all over the battle. This would allow for some awesome screen shots. Currently, your perspective is somewhat limited, as you are tied to your ship.
Maybe allow ships that are sunk or surrender to continue on in free camera mode. If that option were there, I'd enter in my basic cutter, surrender immediately, and take some really awesome screen shots and video capture.
It would be fun for the players, and it would generate a lot of really cool images and youtube videos.