Out of strong curiosity, I would really love to know what it was like on sailing ships centuries ago. I can look up nautical terms all day, but those don't express the culture, or much of the procedure or knowledge necessary to convey what life was like on ships such as those.
What was the culture like? What would someone see and hear if he watched the crew disembark from port, or higher-ups changed course, for example? How did the chain of command function, but more importantly, how did the chain of command function socially? (how was the captain treated, for example?) What misconceptions exist from modern culture's perception of sailors/pirates/etc? What were pirates of this time period really like? (and the same questions from earlier apply to pirates, I would suppose.)
Thank you so much!