In short, because even in WWI there were too many tanks to do so and they were considered fairly disposable.

In the two plus years that tanks were produced in WWI, the British and French combined to produce over 6,000 of them. The first batch thrown into combat in 1916, thought quite unreasonably small, was approximately 50 tanks. A full fledged attack a year later included 400. This is far too many vehicles for a logistical system to keep track of (no pun intended) by name. They were interchangeable parts in a military machine.

Generally speaking early tanks did not last long in wartime, either they were knocked out in combat, got stuck in mud, or broke down mechanically. Once they were disabled their crews abandoned them to fight again another day. They were basically disposable pieces of equipment. They did their job to get the infantry thru the trench system and hopefully a portion of the tanks employed could be recovered later.

Ships however are designed to last. They are much larger and their expense to construct is usually expected to be repaid over a long service life. Also, ships are designed to bring their crews home safely to land. To abandon a ship often exposes the crew to the perils of drowning at sea.