Century -- esp. if you can find a good Century Expanded.

The notion of manliness is problematic, because many of the gentlemanly qualities that were appropriate to real men in the 1920s would now be considered effete. Russel Crowe did not play Robin Hood in tights, as Errol Flynn did.

Perhaps a graphic quality like an adventure book from the 1920s would be good to aim for, as you grandfather's story seems to have been one of romantic adventure.

Rockwell Kent, although not a navy man, was a sailor and adventurer, his NbyNE comes to mind (scroll down the thread for images):

http://www.typophile.com/node/57532

Thanks for all the input. This is good stuff! I hand't thought about the "romantic adventure" aspect of what he did. I guess because most of the documents of his I have involve swords and explosions and things like that. The adventure novel idea certainly has some potential (too bad I'm not an illustrator).

I probably should've been clearer about what it is I'm working on. It's just a personal/family project to be printed through blurb.com. It'll be heavy on pictures and scans of documents, and fairly minimal in the text department, but some of the adventure novel stuff could certainly be woven in.

thanks!