Your "homework" probably should include short stories by Lincoln Colcord, Cicely Fox Smith, as well as Joseph Conrad (already mentioned). Dana's book is from 1840; it's rather early for your period and its primary focus was from the perspective of a greenhorn sailor but it's certainly a great book.
You might also review the lyrics to the old forebitter "Paddy West" so as to reinforce your vocabulary as an "armchair sailor."
Some of the last sailing passenger transports made the run from England to Australia, and were not displaced by steam until the latter 19th century.