What is the best Exploration era Naval Battle simulator?

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I would like suggestions as to which games are the best in this genre. Currently I've been playing Empire: Total War which has, seemingly, a great naval battle simulator. However, this is the only game of its sort which I have played. At my local Half Price I found a copy of East India Company, of which I'm not sure what to think about it after watching what I could find of it on YouTube. Does anyone know of any sea battle (or Age of Exploration era (1400's through 1800's, prior to steel battleships that is)) simulators which you think are good either by experience of playing or by the reading of positive reviews?

I think the Genesis version of Pirates! Gold is pretty cool, if you haven't tried that already.

I prefer the treasure hunting to the combat, though. But then I should probably start a new game, because I started playing without reading the manual first, and I kind of screwed up a bit

N:TW, obviously enough, is a bit better than E:TW, though the "patch your ships up at the start of combat" feature is extremely stupid. Those are the only two I've played extensively. I have a copy of Commander: Conquest of the Americas, tried it briefly and didn't like it. Looks similar to East India Company. Pirates! is fun but pure arcade.

Although a building sim game, there's a lot of naval battles in Anno 1404. Ships play a large role in the game because of trade, colonizing new lands etc.

Depends how retro or how complex you want to go.

Age of sail 2: Privateers Bounty is your best bet

Port Royale 1 & 2 (these are more economy building games the naval combat is very basic)
Crown of Glory emperors edition (this is actually a complex napoleonic strategy game the naval combat only forms part of the game)
Sid Meier's Pirates (the old one more then the modern remake)
Man of War 2: Chains of Command (you need an emulator to get it running on a modern system)