Dr. Ross's support of Bluejacket is understandable, for two reasons: one - he has a professional connection with the company; and two - its products are excellent. I've done business with Bluejacket for almost thirty years and have never had reason to complain about the company's products or service.
I can recommend three other manufacturers of wood kits. Calder Craft, also known as Jotika, is a relatively new British firm that specializes in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British warships. Its kits are large, well designed, accurate and, unfortunately, quite expensive. (The Calder H.M.S. Victory, on 1/72 scale, is about four feet long and costs about a thousand dollars.) I have to admit I've never actually examined a Calder kit personally; they're hard to find in the U.S., and a bit too much for my budget. But on the basis of published reviews and what I've read about them in other Web forums, I'm pretty confident in recommending them.
The other two companies are both American. Model Shipways is a fine firm that's been around since the late 1940s. Like Bluejacket, it produces kits in a variety of formats: solid-hull, plank-on-bulkhead, and plank-on-frame. The kits in the current Model Shipways catalog have been introduced over quite a long period, and therefore vary somewhat in sophistication. But the firm's track record is excellent. About twenty-five years ago the two gentlemen who founded the company sold it to Model Expo (www.modelexpoonline.com). That website is particularly nice in that it lets you download the kit instruction books, which will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.
The other recommendable company is A.J. Fisher. That one is also quite old; it goes back to 1925. It was out of business for a long time, but has recently been brought back to life by new management. I haven't examined any of the newly re-released Fisher kits in person, but the company has a fine reputation and obviously is trying had to re-establish itself as a manufacturer of serious scale model kits. Its website is http://ajfisher.com .
Virtually all the other wood kit manufacturers - at least those that are reasonably widely distributed in the U.S. - fall into the category of HECEPOB (Hideously Expensive Continental European Plank On Bulkhead). HECEPOB companies include Artesania Latina, Mamoli, Amati, Corel, Euromodel, Occre, Sergal, and probably a couple of others that I can't remember at the moment. (Most of them are distributed by Model Expo, at the website mentioned above.) Serious scale ship modelers generally hold these things in contempt. They are generally characterized by handsome packaging, shoddy materials, irrational construction methods, lousy plans, outrageous prices, and a near-total lack of interest in historical accuracy. I've ranted about these...objects...at such length in this Forum that the rest of the membership is undoubtedly sick of reading what I have to say about them. In the unlikely event that anybody's interested, a Forum search on the word "HECEPOB" will yield more reading than you want.
I always try to remember to offer two caveats about HECEPOB kits: one - I can't claim to have examined all of them, and I'm sure they do vary somewhat in quality. Two - at least two of those companies, Amati and Mamoli, have given signs recently that they've discovered what a scale ship model looks like and are making at least a half-hearted effort to crawl out of the ooze of HECEPOBdom. (Amati is selling a range of British warships, under the name "Victory Models," that were designed by a gentleman who used to work for Calder.)
Some people get a good deal of pleasure out of HECEPOB kits; others tolerate them because, in various parts of the globe, nothing else is available. To each his or her own; it's not for me to dictate what products people should buy in the pursuit of their hobbies. Personally, though, I wouldn't allow a HECEPOB kit in my house.
If you're interested in scale ship modeling - i.e., miniature reproductions of real ships - my strong advice is to stick with Bluejacket, Model Shipways, A.J. Fisher, and (if you can afford it) Calder/Jotika.
Hope that helps a little. Good luck.