As Sharpe enjoys his retirement — and he deserves a quiet time with Lucile — I have discovered the Thomas Kydd series by Julian Stockwin.
They should be listed in your “try these historical novels” section,
(1) because no one but Stockwin seems to demonstrate the complexity of keeping a sailing warship afloat; and
(2) Kydd moves, book-by-book, from pressed “landsman” to skilled seaman to warrant officer to commissioned officer…facing some of the same snobbery that Sharpe faces, and, like Sharpe, learning to lead. (My favorite of all is “Sharpe’s Rifles”, in which Sharpe learns a bit from Major Blas de Vivar.).
Incidentally, I chuckled when rifleman Dodd failed to return from a skirmish-line in one of the newer Sharpe novels.
John Welch