Just been looking at some figures, pretty shocking!!!
At the start of the Second World War the RN had 22 battleships, and 80 cruisers. At the end the RN had 14 battleships, 52 carriers, 62 cruisers, 257 destroyers, 131 submarines and 9000 other ships. During the war the Royal Navy lost 350 major warships and more than 1000 small ones. There were 134,000 men in the navy at the start of the war, which rose to 865,000 by the end. 51,000 RN sailors were killed.
Despite opposition from the U.S. naval chief, Admiral Ernest King, the Royal Navy sent a large task force to the Pacific (British Pacific Fleet). This required the use of wholly different techniques, requiring a substantial fleet support train, resupply at sea and an emphasis on naval air power and defence. In 1945 84 warships and support vessels were sent to the Pacific. It remains the largest foreign deployment of the Royal Navy. Their largest attack was on the oil refineries in Sumatra to deny Japanese access to supplies. However it also gave cover to the US landings on Okinawa and carried out air attacks and bombardment of the Japanese mainland.
A peak of 9,000 ships in the Royal Navy!!!! By comparison, today's US navy has less than 300.