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Anacondas, to be more precise 
but I have also run into the same problem in the past. Early drafts for Of Celts and Iberians considered "huge" naval battles between Romans and Carthaginians. The map included also the Italian peninsula, North Africa, Corsica Sardinia and Sicily. I had to drop that idea given my impossibility to get the Romans and Carthaginians to build ships.
I had noticed from regular games that AI civs tend to build tons of ships when they are close to or have reached nuclear power. I played in that direction, gave all techs, took away one or several at a time.... nothing. Thus I do not believe the problem has anything to do with the number of techs or degree of development. I also doubt that the ratio land square/sea square has anything to do with this. If you play in a map with more than 70% water, the AI still builds tons of ships.
After many other failed attempts (unit slots, changes in unit stats, adding or removing coastal cities), I concluded that it all depended on whether the AI had room to "peacefully" colonize other lands or not. I did not test this thoroughly for different settings but it seemed to be true for Celts and Iberians.
In my very old Time of Thunder, the AI English built boats in a very neat way. I haven't played that scen for a long time but I recall that it was very hard to reach the coasts of England by boat with the Spanish. All the ships were consistently and ruthlessly massacred by the English. The English even dared to attack coastal cities in Spain. Pretty good from the historical point of view uh? The thing is that perhaps Thunder holds the clue to definitely solve the problem. I recall that English ships were faster than anyone else's, so maybe the issue of naval superiority (true naval superiority) is another factor.
but I have also run into the same problem in the past. Early drafts for Of Celts and Iberians considered "huge" naval battles between Romans and Carthaginians. The map included also the Italian peninsula, North Africa, Corsica Sardinia and Sicily. I had to drop that idea given my impossibility to get the Romans and Carthaginians to build ships.I had noticed from regular games that AI civs tend to build tons of ships when they are close to or have reached nuclear power. I played in that direction, gave all techs, took away one or several at a time.... nothing. Thus I do not believe the problem has anything to do with the number of techs or degree of development. I also doubt that the ratio land square/sea square has anything to do with this. If you play in a map with more than 70% water, the AI still builds tons of ships.
After many other failed attempts (unit slots, changes in unit stats, adding or removing coastal cities), I concluded that it all depended on whether the AI had room to "peacefully" colonize other lands or not. I did not test this thoroughly for different settings but it seemed to be true for Celts and Iberians.
In my very old Time of Thunder, the AI English built boats in a very neat way. I haven't played that scen for a long time but I recall that it was very hard to reach the coasts of England by boat with the Spanish. All the ships were consistently and ruthlessly massacred by the English. The English even dared to attack coastal cities in Spain. Pretty good from the historical point of view uh? The thing is that perhaps Thunder holds the clue to definitely solve the problem. I recall that English ships were faster than anyone else's, so maybe the issue of naval superiority (true naval superiority) is another factor.
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