So, continuing as the Cravers, I'm trying to finish the quest to get Reynar up to level 9, which turned out to be tougher than expected because, when I looked at his skills, he seemed better suited to serving in a fleet as opposed to serving as a governor.  However, he seemed to take forever to gain experience, so I began to watch him.  He seems to gain +1 experience per turn while on a fleet, and after a battle, he seems to gain half the listed experience (That is, if a battle is worth 4 experience, he seems to gain 2).  I noticed, on the other hand, that my governors were gaining levels every few turns, so I switched him to a governorship and, sure enough, he gains experience in great chunks, typically when things are built (which, I believe, is expected behavior).

I thought it might just be Reynar, but other admirals seem to be similarly slow.

Is this intended?  It seems given the greater risks posed to a hero on a fleet that he shouldn't be getting LESS experience, and while you can go through lots of battles in a turn, going from level 6 to 7 (never mind from 6 to 9) costs 120 experience, which is 120 turns on a fleet (!), and about 40-60 battles.  That seems punishingly slow!