This does feel intuitively obvious, but for the avoidance of doubt I tried simulating it and you lose in about 1/3rd the time. Furthermore, there is no stacking scheme that is better than a full fleet. You search slightly more for each ship but search less overall.
what always kills me about this joke is that there is no way in which this is not playing at a huge disadvantage. it's the same as only playing with the bottom ship. you're starting a 17 point game in the hole by 12