I think I remember that Imperial Japanese Navy used to organize ships into formations that resemble army units, based on number of sailors. For example a squadron of cruisers was called division, because it had equal manpower, I suppose. WWII cruiser had much larger crews, compared to modern ones. Perhaps that could, also, be  an indicator of  naval combat strength.

 

DG

 

The U S Navy better start double and triple counting warships. The current, May 2012, Naval Revue issue of the Proceedings of theU S Naval Institute lists 360 active duty admirals. Seems a bit excessive for a rapidly shrinking fleet.