Well Ryan, you are obviously a man after my own heart. Start me off and I consume every fact about a subject that I can and then branch out into any sideline of the subject that I fancy. I look at the Gun-makers of the period and dueling, sword-smiths, the coinage of several nations, clothing (thanks to Mrs Bligh), and I am now struggling with some of the English religious sects of the period.
We do have a small section on book reviews, and you may find it interesting. Although the reviews are somewhat cursory in nature, they may lead you to some interesting titles.

https://sailsofglory.org/forumdispla...4-Book-Reviews

We have a variety of actions for you to peruse, both historical and fictional. For instance we enacted both the Battle of Lissa and the Nile at our Doncaster get together weekend last year. This year we will be doing Trafalgar, and I will be attempting a part historical and partly enhanced version of Lord Cochrane's attack on Valdivia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Valdivia.

You might also find some of our Solo Campaign games using Herkybird's solo rules system of use in your research.

https://sailsofglory.org/forumdispla...gn-Discussions

Hope that this gives you some insight into what is going on and just how far you can venture if you wish to.

Ensign Patch and hi Pirate games are a good case in point. With a good basis in Naval history and ship handling or even just a cursory knowledge of the basic rules of the game, let your imagine lead you where it will. the whole object of the game, as Andre the game's designer states, is just to have a good time and enjoy playing. If you can find some friends to enjoy playing it with you so much the better.

Rob.