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Ah, a possible convert!
OK, so the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin novels are set at the time of the Napoleonic Wars between England and France (with, of course, other participants.) The time of the great English square-rigged sailing ships and the very height of the English Navy. But they are FAR more than just naval books! Jack Aubrey is not only a great instinctive sailor, but also an accomplished mathematician in his own right, and Stephen Maturin, his surgeon and friend, is a great naturalist and scientist (as well as a very successful spy for the English and yet an Irish partisan.) Also, both are accomplished amateur musicians
The books are well written, the characters well developed, and while the focus is around the naval events in most cases, it's the whole fabric of the rest of the books that makes them so successful and interesting. I've read and enjoyed C.S. Forester's Hornblower books, and most of Alexander Kent's Bolitho series, and both are good. But O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series is really at a different level, IMHO. We not only get a look at the history and geography of the era, but also the natural science and political landscape of not just England and Europe, but Australia and the Far East. There is even a fascinating look at the causes and consequences of the draining of the fens in rural England.
We have available two superb narrated audio versions, one by Simon Vance (issybird's favourite) and one by Patrick Tull (my favourite.) There are ebook versions of all the books as well, and both audio (the Simon Vance version) and ebook versions are available on Overdrive, so your library might well have them.
As a final bit of convincing, my DW who doesn't read this sort of thing as she would say it, was convinced to try them and was instantly hooked. We read them together as fast as Patrick O'Brian could write them. Both as DT books and as audio books, the old Books on Tape versions by Patrick Tull.
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