RN Gunnery
The Royal Navy have a piss poor reputation for their gunnery skills. They fired and missed thousands of times attempting to sink the Bismark, despite it running round in circles at walking pace. They were even worse in WW1 at Jutland. In both cases, the German Navy were far more accurate and effective with their shooting.
Without missiles they've hopeless as they've no chance of hitting a barn door at 10 feet with their 4.5 inch popguns. The RN must have been quaking when the Russian Armada sailed down the Channel and couple of weeks ago.