Why do battle-honour rankings not fully reflect how often destroyers fought?
Short answerDestroyer actions were often bundled into campaign honours, while a battleship engagement was more readily counted as a separate battle.
NotesA ranking of Jervis, Orion, Nubian, Tartar, and Warspite exposes a problem with the counting method. Destroyers could fight numerous actions during a campaign yet receive a single campaign honour. A battleship's comparatively brief appearance and gunfire might instead be treated as a discrete battle. Counting destroyer actions on the same basis would put their totals ahead of the capital ships rather than behind them.