One of my favorite author/historians is Joan Druett, whose maritime history books are all on my shelves and were important to the background research for the Patricia MacPherson Nautical Adventure Series. One of her many books that I found fascinating (as a writer of historical fiction, as a sailor, and as a retired Emergency Nurse) was Rough Medicine; Surgeons at Sea in the Age of Sail. 
(Routledge, 2001)
Joan Druett has read Surgeon’s Mate and discussed it today on her blog, World of the Written Word.
