Wow ..major glitch in my favor

I am presently playing England..pretty much following the guide on these forums. I just fought the Spanish main fleet near Gibraltar with Nelson's fleet. I won the battle and all 6 ships survived. They where pretty much all at half strength or less. I alt tabbed out for a little while. When I returned all 6 ships where at full strength. But the battle still had been fought the Spanish fleet was gone. I do not understand what occured, but I do not feel right letting it stand as is. Also the Mercantman I captured is gone. But the prize money I aquired for scrapping a 1st rate ship ( did not want to pay the upkeep ) is still in my treasury. Very strange.

Has anybody heard of a glitch like this occuring.

Actually the problem is that the ships are not showing there current stats. As I fought another battle with the 122 gun Victoria that escaped the first battle. The after battle report showed 4 of the ships had actually gone to about 1/3 power ( the actual stats ). But right after the battle the stats where again showing as totally repaired. Sounds like the fleet is glitched. Can I do anything to get the ships to show there actual stats or do I have to load an earlier save.

Alt-tabbing out and multitasking is possibly what did it as in overwriting that part of memory with whatever else you were doing.