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

by Henry I. Bowditch

Doubtless it was with a sorrowing heart that Nat left his own dear home and his kind mother to take up his abode among strangers; for he was to live at the house of his employer, Mr. Hodges. But if he did feel sad, he was not one to neglect a duty in consequence of sorrow. The shop in which he was employed was situated very near the wharves, in the lower part of the town of Salem. We do not see many such stores now in Boston; though something similar is sometimes found in small country towns. In it a great variety of goods was sold, especially everything which would be useful to a sailor. Pork and nails, hammers and butter, were kept in adjacent barrels. The walls were hung with all the tools needed in the seafaring life. There was a long counter in it, at one end of which Nat had his little desk. When not engaged with customers, he used to read and write there. He always kept a slate by his side, and, when not occupied by the duties of the shop, he was usually busied with his favorite pursuit of arithmetic. In the warm weather of summer, when there was little business, and the heat was uncomfortable, he was often seen, by the neighbors, engaged in ciphering, while resting his slate upon the half door of the shop; for in those days the shop doors were made in two parts, so that frequently the lower half was shut, while the upper was open. Thus he was always actively employed, instead of being idle, as is too frequently the case with boys in similar circumstances. Even on the great holidays of Fourth of July and “General Training,” he did not leave his studies for the purpose of going to see the parade, but remained at the shop, laboring to improve himself; or, if the shop was closed, he was in his little garret-room at his employer’s house. Study and reading were beginning to be his only recreation. Frequently, after the store was closed at night, he remained until nine or ten o’clock. Many long winter nights he passed in a similar manner, at his master’s house by the kitchen fire. While here, he did not become morose or ill-natured; but frequently, when the servant girl wished to go to see her parents, who lived one or two miles off, he took her place by the side of the cradle of his master’s child, and rocked it gently with his foot, while busily occupied at his books. I think this was one of the sweetest incidents in his early days. It was the germ of his benevolence in after-life. A truly great man is kind-hearted as well as wise. Nat began thus early his course of genuine humanity and science. So must you do if you would imitate him.

HIGHER STUDIES.

As he became older, he became interested in larger and more important works; and of these, fortunately, he found an abundant supply. His employer lived in the house of Judge Ropes, and Nat had permission to use the library of this gentleman as much as he wished. In this collection he found one set of books which he afterwards valued very much. He tried to buy a copy of it when he was old, having a similar feeling towards it that he bore towards his grandmother’s Bible. It was Chambers’s Cyclopædia. As you may judge from the name Cyclopædia, these books, consisting of four very large volumes, contained much upon a great many subjects. It is like a dictionary. He read every piece in it, and copied into blank books, which he obtained for the purpose, everything he thought particularly interesting, especially all about arithmetic. Previously, he had studied navigation, or the methods whereby the sailors are enabled to guide their ships across the ocean. In this Cyclopædia he found much upon this subject; also upon astronomy, or the knowledge of the stars and other heavenly bodies; and upon mensuration, or the art with which we are enabled to measure large quantities of land or water.

ALMANAC FOR 1790.

But he was not satisfied with merely studying what others did. He made several dials and curious instruments for measuring the weather, &c. He likewise, at the age of fourteen years, made an Almanac for 1790, so accurately and minutely finished, that it might have been published. Whilst engaged upon this last, he was more than usually laborious. The first rays of the morning saw him at labor, and he sat up, with his rushlight, until late at night. If any asked where Nat was, the reply was, “He is engaged in making his Almanac.” He was just fourteen years of age when he finished it.[2]

BEGINS ALGEBRA.

HIS DELIGHT IN IT.

August 1, 1787,—that is, at the age of fourteen,—he was introduced to a mode of calculating which was wholly new to him. His brother came home from his school, where he had been learning navigation, and told him that his master had a mode of ciphering by means of letters. Nat puzzled himself very much about the matter, and imagined a variety of methods of “ciphering with letters.” He thought that perhaps A added to B made C, and B added to C made D, and so on; but there seemed to him no use in all this. At length he begged his brother to obtain for him the book. The schoolmaster readily lent it; and it is said that the boy did not sleep that night. He was so delighted with reading about this method, or algebra, as it is called, that he found it impossible to sleep. He afterwards talked with an old English sailor, who happened to know something about the subject, and received some little instruction from him. This person afterwards went to his own country; but just before he left Salem, he patted Nat upon the head, and said, “Nat, my boy, go on studying as you do now, and you will be a great man one of these days.” You will see, before finishing this story, that the prophecy of the old sailor was amply fulfilled.

DRS. PRINCE AND BENTLEY AID HIM.