The most competent fleet in naval history

Which fleet was the most competent at sea in history?

The comparison favours the late age-of-sail Royal Navy because a century of near-continuous war produced experience that peacetime training could not fully reproduce.

The comparison separates competence built through training from experience gained in repeated combat. Royal Navy officers and sailors had faced ordinary hazards at sea alongside generations of enemy action. That experience is used to explain strength at different levels of command. The modern US Navy is the peacetime choice in the discussion, while the late age-of-sail Royal Navy is selected when demonstrated wartime competence is included.