I've come to the conclusion that in a 1vs1 ship battle unless you have the best ship available at the level you get the ship quests it is going to be very rare to win a single broadside battle unless you are working with another player to bring it down. Now here is the kicker, when fighting 1v1 battles other enemy ships quite often enough show up against you. If you can't ever win against a single ship unless you have the very best ship available, you aren't going to win against any more than 1 either. There is simply no point in buying crown ships either as from what I am seeng they likely are only good for at most a couple or a few levels making them obsolute in no time when leveling up.