I'm actually asking this question for a fairly selfish reason, as I'm doing a bit of family history and seems as though I've found a naval record for an ancestor.
However, at the same time as he was supposedly serving a long career across multiple ships (from 1816 to 1835) other records show (a person with the same name?) having children and a wife on shore in Devonport. I can't track whether they lived together at the time though. Specifically, he wasnt married when he started his career at age 20 - but appears to then get married later on. Is this kind of thing possible or common for enlisted men?
At the tail end of his career, marriage would have been generally starting to be discouraged among common sailors, but in the early part of his career it would be common to have a wife and children ashore. Keep in mind that during the period you're describing, naval service for sailors (non-officers) was not a permanent employment; men were enlisted aboard a ship for the duration of a cruise or a period of time, and paid off at the end of service. So there was plenty of coming and going into different ships, and a somewhat predictable set of home ports for ships.
When did the Navy start offering retirement ?