Pre-battle maneuver gives reconnaissance particular value in the age of sail. A modern destroyer's radar and small craft would accompany it in this counterfactual, and even its RIB could inspect the opposing fleet. The Pacific 24 is quoted as capable of 38 knots, with a range of 150 nautical miles at 30 knots. That performance could let it circle a sailing fleet and return with observations about its capabilities. Semaphore or other visual signals could pass those observations to friendly ships if they shared a signal vocabulary. Royal Navy signal standardization is tentatively placed in the 1780s, with the date explicitly uncertain.
Notable Point · 46:11-48:43
Using a modern RIB to scout an age-of-sail fleet
Radar and a fast RIB could reveal an enemy sailing fleet's disposition, while a shared signal vocabulary would determine how that intelligence reached friendly ships.