Nat the Navigator. A Life of Nathaniel Bowditch. For Young Persons

by Henry I. Bowditch

TEACHES THE SAILORS.

CARES FOR THEM WHEN ILL.

Thus finished Mr. Bowditch’s career as a sailor, after he had been about eight years engaged in this pursuit. Let us now review a little, and see what he was doing during these voyages, and how he occupied his time. He was very regular in his habits. During the first two voyages he attended to the duties of mate of the vessel. This, of course, prevented him from studying as much as he otherwise would have done. He, moreover, as we have seen, took fewer books with him. But during the next two voyages, the captain excused him from the watches, and he was able to read with less interruption. After the deck had been washed in the morning, he walked for half an hour. He then went into the cabin to study, until the time arrived at which he was to observe the sun. This was done every day at noon, in order to tell whereabouts in the ocean a vessel is at the moment of the observation. Having finished this, he usually dined. After this he slept a few moments, or took a walk, and then studied again until tea time. After supper he was again at work until nine, when he used to walk for some time, cheerfully talking with his comrades. Afterwards he usually studied until late at night; and in order not to disturb his fellow-passengers, he did not keep a light in the cabin, but frequently stood upon the cabin stairway, reading by the light of the binnacle lamp, where the compass was kept. Whenever the vessel arrived at a port, he was still engaged, but in a different way, perhaps. The instant he was freed from the duties of weighing pepper on the coast of Sumatra, he went to his books. No time was wasted, either in foul or fair weather. It made no difference to him whether the ship was resting motionless upon the water, or tossing upon the heaviest swell, he was always a worker. But there was yet another and still more pleasant trait in his character. He not only loved study himself, but he was determined to persuade all others to love it also. During his first voyage, he used to go to the forecastle, or sailor’s cabin, and carry his books of navigation, and teach the seamen how to guide a ship by the rules found in these books. He then went on deck, and explained to each one the method of using the quadrant and sextant, two instruments used by a sea captain. There was an old man formerly living in Salem, who, when speaking of this disposition of Mr. Bowditch, said, “I was the steward onboard the vessel, and Mr. Bowditch frequently scolded me because I did not come to study with him more steadily.” It is a fact that every sailor on board the ship during that voyage became afterwards captain, and probably some of them would never have risen so high, had it not been for the kindness of their friend. I like to think of this trait in his character. He delighted in learning for its own sake, and he was always pleased when he could find some one upon whom he could bestow all his acquirements. He had no mean standard of comparison between himself and his fellows, but desired to give and receive as much good as it was possible for him to bestow or accept.

He was beloved for this by all: but his kindness of heart led him not merely to teach those who knew less than he, but he did all he could to relieve them when ill. One of them wrote in a letter answering my inquiries, after alluding to Mr. Bowditch’s willingness to teach others, “But kindness and attention to the poor seasick cabin-boy are to this day [April, 1838] uppermost in my memory, and will last when his learning is remembered no more.” He might have been as learned, without displaying this regard for others. But he would not then have had such tributes of love as was displayed by this old sailor, who remembered his kindness rather than his instruction.

STUDY OF MATHEMATICS.

BOWDITCH’S NAVIGATOR.

ORIGIN OF IT.

SUCCESS.

FAVORABLE NOTICE.

But let us examine his particular studies pursued while at sea. We have already seen that from a boy he had liked simple arithmetic, and on becoming older had studied deeply into mathematics—a kind of learning similar in character to arithmetic, only much more difficult and important. During the long voyages to India, he had ample opportunity for following this branch of science; consequently we find that he was chiefly occupied with that subject. On the first voyage he discovered many errors in a book on navigation, some of which were so important, that in consequence of them, not a few vessels had been shipwrecked. This erroneous work was originally published in London, by a man named Hamilton Moore, and it was almost the only one in use among seamen. It had been reprinted in America, in 1798, by Mr. Blunt, then living in Newburyport. One edition had been published, and a second was about to be issued, in 1799, when Mr. Blunt learned, by means of a mutual friend, that Mr. Bowditch, during his two first voyages, had detected many of these errors, and was willing to inform him of them. Mr. Blunt immediately made application to the young navigator, and received the assistance he wanted. Finding that Mr. Bowditch had within him the means of rendering essential service, Mr. Blunt proposed to him, when starting on his fourth voyage,—that is, to India,—to examine all the tables, and see what number of errors he could find. Mr. Bowditch agreed to the proposal, and during this voyage his time was much occupied with this task—a very wearisome, but, as it proved eventually, a profitable one, as it regards reputation and pecuniary success. The mistakes were so numerous that he found it much easier to make a new work, and introduce therein his own improvements: so that Mr. Bowditch, before the termination of the voyage, decided to make some arrangement for this purpose. The consequence was, that, instead of publishing a third edition of Moore’s Navigator, in 1802, the first edition of the “American Practical Navigator” was published by Mr. Bowditch, under his own name, Mr. Blunt being proprietor. Thus was laid, at the age of twenty-nine, the foundation of a work on navigation that has kept constantly before the public, as one of the best of the kind, either in America or England. It passed through its tenth edition a short time before Mr. Bowditch’s death.[8] It soon superseded entirely Mr. Moore’s, and was early republished in London. And it was not only obtained by every American seaman, but even English ships sought for Bowditch’s Navigator as their safety during their long voyages. Many amusing anecdotes are related in reference to this book. An American captain once took passage in an English ship from the Isle of France for St. Helena. After, being a few days out, the passenger, about noon, brought on deck his “Navigator” (one of Bowditch’s editions) for the purpose of using it. While thus engaged, the English captain of the vessel walked up and looked at the work. “Why,” says he, “you use the same work that we do. Pray, where did you get that?” And great was the surprise of the Englishman, when he learned that the author of the book he was using every day of his life was the near neighbor and friend of the person he was talking with. Little did he imagine that he was dependent upon the efforts of a son of an American cooper for the information by which he was enabled to go from sea to sea in comparative safety. But how is it that this work has been able to remain so long one of the best works of the kind? Because Mr. Bowditch bestowed very great pains upon it, and with every new edition made all the improvements possible. He moreover brought all his learning to bear upon it. To use a common phrase, he put, for the time being, his “whole heart into” making it as perfect as possible. In the explanations of the rules he was simple, so that the most ignorant could understand them. But, in addition to all this, as we have already stated, he introduced all the new methods which he himself had discovered. One of these was favorably noticed by a celebrated French astronomer, in a Journal published in 1808.