If we go by historical analogies to the Age of Sail, some of the shenanigans captains got up to were pretty consistent with Star Trek (up to and including getting themselves killed by the natives, like Captain Cook). It's only modern navies that care so much about the lives of senior staff ;-)

@Damage @startrek I would think one would avoid sending one’s most powerful ship to explore — it’s rather threatening diplomatically, and it also means one’s defence of home space is weakened. It makes more sense to me to send smaller, more nimble, less threatening (and less valuable) ships into the unknown.