>For age of sail crew (and captain's) quarters, the film Master & Commander is >probably the most accurate movie. Watch how they strip the captain's cabin as he >prepares himself for battle. The books it was based, the Aubrey-Maturin series, >are even better.
>For Traveller starship analogies, though, I'd be more inclined to look at >submarines.
I prefer the inspiration for O'Brian. When the authoer of the Horatio Hornblower novels, C. S. Forester (also author of African Queen) died, the publisher hired O'Brian to keep writing similar books. Other good ones in the same vein include Alexander Kent's Richard Bolitho series, Richard Woodman's Nathaniel Drinkwater series, Dudley Pope's Ramage series, Thomas Hoover's Caribee, and James Nelson's All the Brave Fellows. The Sharps series is the same idea, but in the regular Army-o, instead of the Navy.