Kydd

the long version

High adventure with a sophisticated story arc. It's fiction but the characters are placed in accurate historical context during the long naval war between Britain and France around the turn of the 19th Century. The two main protagonists, Tom Kydd and Renzi have as different backgrounds as could be. Simple Kydd, a poor wig maker and cultured Renzi on the run from his noble, rich family. Both are pressed into naval service on a British Navy battleship and so the adventure begins and continues through about a dozen volumes.