This was/is a course taught at the US Naval Academy. The link below leads to the course syllabus. Part of it was previously linked by Bobby. That section appeared in the merchantman thread, but many of the photos, etc. are no longer readable after the site hack.

Reading through the syllabus and the thread here reaffirms the need we still have for merchantman ships for Sails of Glory. I especially like the idea of the Bonhomme Richard/Duc de Duras as flip side ships we might see some day?

In any case there's a lot of information contained in the syllabus with even more links and citations to follow up articles, book and websites.

http://www.usna.edu/Users/oceano/pgu...d_syllabus.htm