I recall reading an interesting book about the infamous Dutch East Indies voyage of the Batavia...

Unlike most who would be more interested in the horror of the aftermath of the shipwreck...I was more fascinated by the early part of the book: its description of the ships construction...quite amazed that the Dutch has so finesed the building process in the 17th c. that these substantial ships were basically mass manufactured.

Cant recall the author atm...there are several books written in the subject