I'm just awaiting the arrival from Amazon of the 11th book in the Kydd series, by Julian Stockwin.

Well researched and beautifully written, they follow the career of a pressed man as he 'goes aft thru the hawse' to become an officer and ultimately (so far) a commander prior to and during the Napoleonic Wars. The supporting characters who appear in the book are real people from history such as the American Robert Fulton who tried unsuccessfully to sell the idea of submarines and torpedoes first to Buonaparte and then to Pitt. I can recommend the whole series.

The Kydd Series