How a modern warship would attack an Age of Sail fleet

A deliberately uneven counterfactual uses shell behaviour and wooden construction to explain why secondary and illumination ammunition could be as destructive as a battleship's main battery.

Question

How would a Second World War Royal Navy force fight a fleet from the Napoleonic era?

Short answer

It would keep its distance and use secondary or incendiary ammunition, while even a non-detonating heavy shell could wreck a wooden hull through kinetic impact.

Notes

The modern force could use its speed to control the engagement and fire without entering the wooden fleet's effective range. A heavy armour-piercing shell might pass through without detonating, but its kinetic energy could tear a large opening or shatter a wooden hull. Secondary guns would be more than sufficient against ships built for round shot rather than explosive shells. The answer also points to phosphorus-bearing illumination ammunition as an especially destructive incendiary threat to timber, rope, sails, and stores.