The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1918-02-21
TURN TO BOWDITCH
Book by Salem Man, Long Dead,
Has Become War Factor.
foung Officers Of the United States
Merchant Marine Are Porting Over
"Ameriean Navigator" Famed
az Sailors Guide.

eighty years, and whose name Is unrec-
| )gnized by millions of his fellow coun-
.rymen.
Persons who follow the rise and de-
cline Of the ''best sellers" among books
nay be surprised to know that Bow
hitch was the author Of n of the
oest-selling books yer produced, which
has run through hundreds Of editions.
n all civilized languages, has been SELL
.ng steadily for more than a hundred
| years, and since the great war began
has been in greater demand than ever.
This book is known as the "Ameri-
can Practical Navigator" 1t is the
yuids Of every keel that sails the Seven
Seas, and is Familiarity known to sail
ors the world over as "Bowditch," or
'Bowditch's Epitome."
With Americas entry into the war,
he demand for Bowditch's "Naviga-
tori became so great that a special
edition of the book was published to
meet it, by the United States hydro
graphic office, Notwithstanding that
editions had been as recently issued as
n 1916, and also in 1914. For a time
{ was difficult to obtain q 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
vas caused chiefly by the stimulus
given the study of navigation among
young Americans by the training serv-
- &c Az TYnskn1 CtataC chfnnfnO
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-
,oraries san intellectual prodigy" He
las since been termed "the Ocean
Pathfinder" On receipt of the news
If his death, in 1886, vessels In the
thief ports of the world half-masted
heir flags. His book vas then said by
me eulogist to be 'in practical utility
second to no work of man ever pub
ished."
OF the personality of the man who
achieved this great distinction very
title is recalled today, in spite of the
yital influence of his work In the pres
INT development of his country.
He was born in the old shipping
:own Of Salem, Mass, in 1773. His
people were poor, and he was obliged
% leave school when but twelve, to
serve in a ship chambers shop.
There, while selling rope and marlin
spikes, the youth fell in with men from
Far voyages. One was an cid British
sailor, who taught the lad navigation.
Algebra so fascinated the boy he
could not sleep after a first glance at
T."
1t CHANGED that about this time a
orivateer came into Salem with the
booty of a cruise that included q
library of philosophical works, the
property of DR.. Richard Kirwan, an
irish scientist, taken from a freighter
captured of the Irish coast.
The books were sold at auction, and
bought by Salem citizens as the nucleus
If a library. Young Bowditch had ac-
less to them, read them eagerly, and
copied most of them for further use.
When twenty-five, Bowditch made
his first voyage to sea, as captains
| clerk on a Salem ship. He sailed nine
| years in all, n voyage being on the
Astrea, the first American ship to visit
| Manila harbor.
Every man in the Astrea's crew soon
learned they had a genius among them.
| Bowditch looked the scholar and de-
| voted many hours a day to study. He
made every man aboard a navigator,
| and 1t was said, each Of them "could
work a lunar observation as well as
Sir Isaac Newton"
When not studying young Bowditch
paced the deck in deep thought. At
| such times nobody spoke to him, know
ing that In due course he would dash
into his cabin to set down the results
of his conceptration, as he rarely failed
! to do.
1t is related that one day the ship
was attacked by a privateer, and Bow
| ditch was assigned to pass powder
| from the magazine. The gun crews got
no powder, and investigation showed
Bowditch seated on a powder keg,
working out a difficult problem on his
slate.
On arriving In Boston harbor from
a voyage in 1902, Bowditch attended
the commencement at Harvard college,
and vas surprised to find himself
named for I'm honorary degree as bach
elor Of arts, his work as an authority
on navigation having won him recogni-
ton.
Retiring from the sea in 1904, Bow
ditch became president of a fire insur-
nee company. He declined professor
ships at Harvard, the Military academy
at West Point and the University of
Virginia.
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," a colossal work on astrono-
my showing great erudition by the
translator, but o known only to :
few astronomers.
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