The Book of the Blue Sea (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

Pirates, prizes, battle, and honor: that’s the stuff of this celebration of the British Royal Navy in the age of Nelson. These true stories include “The Golden Galleon,” “A Tale and Some Whales,” and  “The Taking of Mauritius”—the incident on which Patrick O’Brian based The Mauritius Command, a novel in his celebrated Aubrey-Maturin series.