The only instance that I can think of is that of the USS Indianapolis. The ship was sunk in shark-infested Philippine Sea by a Japanese torpedo in 1945. Captain Charles Butler McVay III initially received a court-martial for "hazarding the ship" by not performing "zig-zag" maneuvers despite evidence that the Navy knew these waters were occupied. It was in 2001 that the Navy rescinded any blame placed on McVay for the deaths and loss of the ship but the "hazarding the ship" charge remained.

It is definitely an interesting story to look into as there are several theories and it was considered a conspiracy for quite some time. Some good starter sites are here and here. You can also find survivor stories all over youtube.

Oh! The Battle of Coronel is almost exactly what you want.

In the opening months of WW1, a small German squadron commanded by Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee was trapped in the Pacific after the UK seized Germany's East Asian colonies. After travelling to the west coast of S. America, Von Spee's squadron was detected by a British squadron commanded by Christopher Cradock.

Through a sort of comedy of errors, Cradock ends up leading his obsolete, under-gunned squadron against a vastly more modern German one. Two of the British ships were lost with all hands at the cost of 3 German wounded.

Anyways, my point is this: one of the many errors was a critical misunderstanding between Cradock and the Admiralty, back in London. Over wireless, the Admiralty wanted Cradock to break contact with the German fleet, but due to ambiguous phrasing, Cradock thought the Admiralty was shaming him and thought he had no option but to attack or labeled a coward.

The whole account is covered very well in Robert K. Massie's "Castles of Steel," which I quite enjoyed.