This is a really difficult topic and i understand that no solution is gonna be liked by everybody. Anyway, at war, destroying one ship is a really important thing, even if its 12 against 1, its one less ship to fight in the upcoming battles. Its kinda of killing strategy in the game, as it was on the real world by the XVIII century this game is referring to. Nobody can imagine an english fleet letting pass by a single spanish ship or the other way around.