[nosianu]

For reading this 21 book series it's worth investing into one more book with background information.

I can recommend

Patrick O'Brian's Navy: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World (Hardcover)

Lots of valuable information, lots of illustrations and schematics and photos.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/24519

[woolcap]

Also recommend A Sea of Words, which is a lexicon of the nautical terminology from the books.