Best books of the year lists are coming out. Turns out I did stumble across a couple of them including The Wager by David Grann, non-fiction. The Wager was a British boat in the 1740s going to South America.
I rather like a number of exploration timber ship stories. A little later in time, the ships Erebus and Terror were searching for the Northwest Passage and were both a complete loss and one of the greatest/largest searches of all time. There are a number of books about them, this century wreckage was finally found, with oral tradition from the indigenous population being a big help.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Erebus_(1826)
Endurance, about Shackleton's quest for the South Pole was fascinating and has been described as one of the best true action books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endura...redible_Voyage