17th Century naval warfare simulation

An important behavior to model, in the AI, is that the fleet would try to stay together, and tow dismasted ships. For example, during the first day of the Battle of Portland ("The Three Days Battle"), Michiel De Ruyter's flagship, the Witte Lam, was dismasted. For the next two days, in fact until he was back in his home port of Vlissingen, his ship was towed.

The only exception to that were "deserters", captains who took out of action, without orders, and deserted the fleet. By the summer of 1653, the Dutch were hanging captains who deserted. Prior to that, Tromp was accused of overlooking desertion. You would also see cases in late 1652 and early 1653 where ship's crews mutinied. These were also not severely handled. After the Battle of the Gabbard, mutineers would have had to fear for their lives.