Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-02-20
TURN TO BOWDITCH
Book by Salem Man, Long Dead,
 Has Become War Factor.
Young Officers of the United States Merchant Marine Are Porina Over American Navigator" Famed
 as Sailors Guide.

No American of today Is exercising so potent an influence in the country's present extraordinary development in seagoing as Nathaniel Bowditch, who has been in his grave for more than eighty years, and whose name Is unrec- ogntzed by millions of his fellow coun- trymen.
 Persons who follow the rise and de- cline of the "best sellers" among books may be surprised to know that Bow ditch was the author of one of the best-selling books ever produced, which has run through hundreds of editions. in all civilized languages, has been sell Ing steadily for more than hundred years, and since the great war began | has been Tn greater demand than ever. This book is known as the ."Ameri- can Practical Navigator" It is the guide of every keel that sails the Seven Seas, and is familiarly known to sail ors the world over as "Bowditch," or "Bowditch's Epitome."
 With America's entry into the war, the demand for Bowditch's "Naviga- tor'' became so great that a special edition of tie book was published to meet 1t, by the United States hydro graphic office, notwithstanding that editions had been as recently issued as in 1916, and also in 1914. For time 1t was difficult to obtain a copy of the Navigator" Since the appearance of the 1917, edition, however, all demands for the book can be met.
 The increased demand for the book was caused chiefly by the stimulus given the study of navigation among young Americans by the training serv- ice of the United States shipping board, which is schooling hundreds of young men to serve as officers on the ships of the new merchant marine.
 Bowditch was called by his contem- poraries "an intellectual prodigy" He has since been termed "the Ocean Pathfinder" On receipt of the news of his de;eh, in 1886, vessels in the chief ports of the world half-masted their flags. His book was then said by one eulogist to be 'in practical utility second to no work of man ever pub- lished"
 Of the personality of the man who achieved this great distinction very little is recalled today, in spite of the vital influence of his work in the pres ent development of his country.
 He was born in the old shipping town of Salem, Mass, in 1773. His people were poor, and he was obliged to leave school when but twelve, to ;,, ch; nhon cho
 There while selling rope and marlin spikes, the youth fell in with men from far voyages. One was an old British sailor who taught the lad navigation. Algebra so fascinated the boy he "could not sleep after a first glance at It."
 It chanced that about this time privateer came into Salem with the booty of cruise that included library of philosophical works, the property of Dr. Richard Kirwan, an Irish scientist, taken from a freighter captured off the Irish coast.
 The books were sold at auction, and bought by Salem citizens as the nucleus of library. Young Bowditch had ac- cess to them, read them eagerly, and copied most of them for further use.
 Retiring from the sea in 1894, Bow ditch became president of fire insur- ance company.
 His life was devoted largely to per fecting his Navigator" and to the translation from the French and an- notation of La Places Celestial Me- chanics," colossal work on astrono- my showing great erudition by the translator, but now known only to a