^They were originally all Japanese, but it didn't take long for German ships to come out (initially just Z3 Max Schultz, Z1 Leberecht Maas, and Bismarck, but more came out later). After that, we got Italian ships, then eventually Allied ships. The Japanese ships still vastly outnumber the foreign ships, but there's still a good, like, fifty foreign ships at this point.
And Ark Royal tends to get characterized as being Bismarck-crazy, so she's more concerned about being close to Bismarck than being prim and proper. And it's less that she's not wearing a skirt, and more that she's wearing a dress that's way too small for her (those are Max's clothes, and it's already a pretty tiny dress on Max to begin with).