I've been playing your mod solid for days and not found anything like that. I actually HOPE I find it like that, as it would be useful in fighting the Urluquai.
Bizarre. DO they spin around at the start or do they just stay facing the wrong way? I will occasionally get ships that are a little askew and reorient themselves at the start of the fight, but I think I got that in the original game too.
They spin 180 degrees at the start. If you can figure out a way to specify ships in the fleet to enter facing backwards and stay that way it would be very useful (as would a rear-facing weapon on the corvette and frigate, but that's another topic).
I have experienced the same- at every WW mod and in the original. If you give the flagship the turn (T) command the other ships in your flottila start to spin around. I guess this is a glitch in the original game...
If this occurs when you tell your flagship to turn in place, then it's normal behavior. The escort ships try to maintain their assigned spots in relation to the flagship, so if you turn right (without moving forward) any escort ships on the right side will have to turn around to go to their new spots (since the ships can only move forward). If the flagship is moving forward as it turns, the escort AI is able to drift backward in formation just by slowing down.