That comment reminded me .... The Romans didn’t have much of a navy until they began fighting the Carthagnians.
In combat using the new model ship, the Romans would close with their Carthaginian adversaries, drop the gangplank, and storm across with heavily armed men to kill the Carthaginians. The Carthaginians had no effective defense against that tactic and suffered decisive losses.
In time, the Romans became expert sailors and shipbuilders who dominated the Mediterranean and the European littoral. Yet Rome's defining strengths in combat were evident in their first navy: practicality, innovation, and, above all, a determination to close with and kill Rome's enemies.
Exactly so. A Carthaginian vessel blew loose, adrift it wound up on a beach in Roman territory. They took it apart, measured everything, and reproduced many copies of it while no one was paying attention. Then they inflicted a major defeat on the Carthaginian fleet. :^)