Where can I find good information on the formidable-ness of the British Royal Navy in the 18th and 19th century and how it compared with navies of other powers of those ages?
The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815, both by N. A. M. Rodgers
A few suggestions...
To Rule The Waves, by Arthur Herman
I own this one, and while it is good...it tends to be a bit too Anglophilic for my taste.