I've recently become interested in the age of sale and would like to look into a more extensive account than what Wikipedia can provide.
How in-depth do you want to go? I have a few on my user profile, which I will copy over here:
N.A.M. Rodger, The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649: The first volume of Rodger's multi-volume naval history of Britain, this book covers seapower from the earliest days of "England" until the end of the second English Civil War. He includes passages on non-English British navies, though the research in that area is still incomplete and spotty. The series the first comprehensive naval history of England/Britain in nearly a century. Rodger divides his books into four types of chapters: ships; operations; administration; and social history. The books can successfully be read as a narrative straight through, or each chapter can be read sequentially; I have done both. Replete with references and with an excellent bibliography.
N.A.M. Rodger, The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815: The second volume of Rodger's history covers operations, administration, ships, and social history through Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo.
N.A.M. Rodger, The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy: An earlier (than the two previous citations) and arguably more accessible introduction to the navy of the mid-18th century, while still providing substantial detail. Establishes Rodger's interest in organizations and organizational history as a way to drive the conversation about navies and their successes or failures.
Patrick O'Brian, Men-of-War: Life in Nelson's Navy: A slim volume but replete with illustrations, this was intended as a companion to O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, about which more below. Useful to understand details of daily life, ship construction, rigging, etc.
King, Hattendorf and Estes, A Sea Of Words: A Lexicon and Companion to the Complete Seafaring Tales of Patrick O'Brian: Meant as an atlas and glossary for the O'Brian novels, it's a useful companion for all sorts of naval reading.
The Social History of English Seamen, 1485-1649, edited by Cheryl A. Fury. A series of essays on the social history of English seamen from the Tudor period onwards. Includes a very interesting chapter on the archaeology of the Mary Rose.
Royal Tars: The Lower Deck of the Royal Navy, 875-1850 by Brian Lavery. A social history of the lower deck (common crew/sailors) of English and British ships.
Able Seamen: The Lower Deck of the Royal Navy, 1850-1939 by Brian Lavery. The follow-up to his Royal Tars, covering the British navy during its transition from sail to steam and the run-up to World War II.
The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command by Andrew Gordon. Gordon looks at the battle of Jutland and the failures in command and control that made it a stalemate, drawing on a history of British command during the Edwardian era to understand how C&C failed in World War I.
Ian W. Toll, Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy: Toll's book is a popular history of the founding of the American navy, but it does spend some time on design and construction and what made the American heavy frigates so successful in limited engagements.
Tunstall and Tracy, Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail: The Evolution of Fighting Tactics, 1650-1815: Meticulously written and illustrated, this is a deep dive into tactics in British, French, Dutch and Spanish navies. A bit dense for beginners, but rewarding.
Roy Adkins, Nelson's Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed The World: A recent popular history of Trafalgar, very accessible to novices but with a great attention to detail.
Adam Nicolson, Sieze the Fire: Heroism, Duty and the Battle of Trafalgar: This is Nicolson's attempt to examine ideals of heroism and the heroic persona set against Trafalgar. It's interesting reading, if not completely successful.
John Sudgen, Nelson: A Dream of Glory and The Sword of Albion: These two books are Sudgen's contribution to the voluminous biographical literature about Horatio Nelson, and well worth a read. A Dream Of Glory in particular takes a very searching look at Nelson's early years, which are often minimized in favor of the more exciting narrative of the Nile/Copenhagen/Trafalgar. Sudgen does become a Nelson fan throughout the books, but his writing is not uncritical and does not tip into hagiography.
Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane, The Autobiography of a Seaman: Written in a midcentury style, this covers the life of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, who is often seen as the "real Jack Aubrey." While that comparison is both fair and also lacking in nuance, this autobiography is a good primary source from the horse's (ok, captain's) mouth.
Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series (start with Master and Commander): Both a well-researched story of life aboard British men-of-war and an excellent series of novels in their own right. Later books are written more sloppily and hastily, but you'll want to read them all.
C.S. Forester's Hornblower series: An early version of the historical naval series. Less well-written than O'Brian's, but with interesting characterization and attention to detail.
A couple I've very much enjoyed were:
R. Adkins 'The War For All The Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo' (2006) ISBN: 978-0316728379
D. Howarth 'Trafalgar: The Nelson Touch' (2003) ISBN: 978-1842127179
N. Mostert 'The Line Upon a Wind: An Intimate History of the Last and Greatest War Fought at Sea Under Sail - 1793-1815' (2007) ISBN: 978-0224069229
As for fiction, any of CS Foresters 'Hornblower' books are fantastic.
The Osprey books, "The Nile, 1798", "Trafalgar, 1805", "British Napoleanic Ship-of-the-Line," and "Napoleanic Naval Armaments" are also great reads, especially if you're just beginning to learn about the subject. The images are helpful when trying to learn the vocabulary, and the maps and diagrams help to understand the mechanics of naval warfare. When reading Rodger's "The Safeguard of the Sea", I also found that Osprey's other titles related to the various periods were very helpful in trying to understand Rodger's descriptions.