Bowditch's American Practical Navigator
 Frontispiece of 1802 first edition. | |
| Also Known As: | "Bowditch", Publication Number Nine |
|---|---|
| Purpose: | Encyclopedia of navigation, valuable handbook on oceanography and meteorology, useful tables and maritime glossary. |
| Publication Frequency: | Irregular |
| Published by: | Defense Mapping Agency Hydrographic Topographic Center (DMAHTC) |
| Available Online: | Yes [1] |
The American Practical Navigator was written by Nathaniel Bowditch and published in 1802 and has remained the textbook of American sailors. It has played the important part of guiding the navigator in every American adventure on the sea. One edition followed another, bringing up-to-date methods to the mariner. In 1866 the copyright and plates were bought by the Hydrographic Office of the United States Navy. It is not only a notable book but is considered one of America's nautical institutions.
As a U.S. Government publication, it is available for free online.
History
The most popular navigational text of the late 18th century was John Hamilton Moore's The New Practical Navigator. Edmund M. Blunt, a Newburyport publisher, decided to issue a revised copy of this work for American navigators. Blunt convinced Nathaniel Bowditch, a locally famous mariner and mathematician, to revise and update The New Practical Navigator. Several other men also assisted in the revision. Blunt's The New Practical Navigator was published in 1799. Blunt also published a second American edition of Hamilton's book in 1800.
By 1802, when Blunt was ready to publish a third edition, Nathaniel Bowditch and others had corrected so many errors in Hamilton's work that Blunt decided to issue the work as a first edition of the New American Practical Navigator. It is to that 1802 work that the current edition of the American Practical Navigator traces its pedigree. The New American Practical Navigator stayed in the Bowditch and Blunt family until the government bought the copyright in 1867. Edmund M. Blunt published the book until 1833; upon his retirement, his sons, Edmund and George, took over publication.The elder Blunt died in 1862; his son Edmund followed in 1866. The next year, 1867, George Blunt sold the copyright to the government for $25,000. The government has published Bowditch ever since. George Blunt died in 1878.
Nathaniel Bowditch continued to correct and revise the book until his death in 1838. Upon his death, the editorial responsibility for the American Practical Navigator passed to his son, J. Ingersoll Bowditch. Ingersoll Bowditch continued editing the Navigator until George Blunt sold the copyright to the government. He outlived all of the principals involved in publishing and editing the Navigator, dying in 1889.
The U.S. government has published some 52 editions since acquiring the copyright to the book that has come to be known simply by its original author’s name, "Bowditch". Since the government began production, the book has been known by its year of publishing, instead of by the edition number. During a revision in 1880 by [[Commander Phillip H. Cooper], USN, the name was changed to American Practical Navigator. Bowditch’s original method of taking "lunars" was finally dropped from the book in 1914. After several more minor revisions and printings, Bowditch was extensively revised between 1946 and 1958.
The present volume, while retaining the basic format of the 1958 version, reorganizes the subjects, deletes obsolete text, and adds new material to keep pace with the extensive changes in navigation that have taken place in the electronic age.
This 1995 edition of the American Practical Navigator incorporates extensive changes in organization, format, and content. Recent advances in navigational electronics, communications, positioning, and other technologies have transformed the way navigation is practiced at sea, and it is clear that even more changes are forthcoming. The changes to this edition of Bowditch are intended to ensure that this publication remains the premier reference work for practical marine navigation. Concerted efforts were made to return to Nathaniel Bowditch’s original intention "to put down in the book nothing I can’t teach the crew." To this end, many complex formulas and equations have been eliminated, and emphasis placed on the capabilities and limitations of various navigation systems and how to use them, instead of explaining complex technical and theoretical details. This edition replaces but does not cancel former editions, which may be retained and consulted as to navigation methods not discussed herein.
The former Volume II has been incorporated into this volume to save space and production cost. A larger page size has also been chosen for similar reasons. These two changes allow us to present a single, comprehensive navigation science reference which explains modern navigational methods while respecting traditional ones. The goal of the changes is to put as much useful information before the navigator as possible in the most understandable and readable format.
Contents
Part I, Fundamentals, includes an overview of the types and phases of marine navigation and the organizations which support and regulate it. It includes chapters relating to the structure, use and limitations of nautical charts; chart datums and their importance; and other material of a basic nature.
Part II, Piloting, emphasizes the practical aspects of navigating a vessel in restricted waters.
Part III, Electronic Navigation, covers the primary means of positioning of the modern navigator. Chapters deal with each of the several electronic methods of navigation, organized by type.
Part IV, Celestial Navigation, contains techniques, examples and problems and a chapter on sight reduction.
Part V, Navigational Mathematics, includes chapters relating to such topics as basic navigational mathematics and computer use in the solution of navigation problems.
Part VI, Navigational Safety, discusses aspects of the new distress and safety communications systems now in place or being implemented in the next several years, as well as navigation regulations, emergency navigation procedures, and distress communications.
Part VII Oceanography, contains chapters on practical oceanography of use to the mariner.
Part VII Marine Meterology, incorporates weather routing and forecasting methods as well as color plates of the Beaufort Sea States.
Source
Portions of this article originated from the preface of The American Practical Navigator, a document produced by the government of the United States of America.
See also
References
- Dictionary of American History by James Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940.