Bowditch's American Practical Navigator

style="font-size: larger;" | **American Practical Navigator**
Frontispiece of 1802 first edition.
Also known as:	"Bowditch", Publication Number Nine
Purpose:	Encyclopedia of navigation Navigation Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks... , valuable handbook on oceanography Oceanography Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean... and meteorology Meteorology Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries... , and contains useful tables and a maritime glossary.
Publication frequency:	Irregular
Published by:	Defense Mapping Agency Hydrographic Topographic Center (DMAHTC)
Available online:	Yes (Zip Zip Zip or ZIP most commonly refers to:Zipper or zip, a device for temporarily joining two edges of fabric togetherZIP code, the USPS Zone Improvement Plan used in postal addresses in the USA*Zip drive, a removable data storage format... file)

The American Practical Navigator (colloquially often referred to as Bowditch), originally written by Nathaniel Bowditch

Nathaniel Bowditch

Nathaniel Bowditch was an early American mathematician remembered for his work on ocean navigation. He is often credited as the founder of modern maritime navigation; his book The New American Practical Navigator, first published in 1802, is still carried on board every commissioned U.S...

, is an encyclopedia of navigation

Navigation

Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...

. It serves as a valuable handbook on oceanography

Oceanography

Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...

and meteorology

Meteorology

Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...

, and contains useful tables and a maritime glossary. In 1867 the copyright

Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

and plates

Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

were bought by the Hydrographic Office of the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

, and as a U.S. Government publication, it is now available free online. It is not only a notable book but is considered one of America's nautical institutions.

History

The most popular navigational text of the late 18th century was The New Practical Navigator by John Hamilton Moore. Edmund M. Blunt, a Newburyport

Newburyport, Massachusetts

Newburyport is a small coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, 35 miles northeast of Boston. The population was 21,189 at the 2000 census. A historic seaport with a vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island...

, Massachusetts publisher, decided to issue a revised copy of this work for American navigators and convinced Nathaniel Bowditch

Nathaniel Bowditch

, a locally famous mariner and mathematician, to revise and update it with the help of several others. Blunt's The New Practical Navigator was published in 1799, followed by a second edition 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 publish it as the first edition of a new work, The New American Practical Navigator. The current edition of the American Practical Navigator traces its pedigree to that 1802 edition. Edmund M. Blunt continued to publish the book until 1833; upon his retirement, his sons, Edmund and George, assumed 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 New American Practical Navigator passed to his son, J. Ingersoll Bowditch. Very few significant changes were made under him. Editions from 1837 through 1880 are nearly identical in content. 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. After the first major revision, a total overhaul of the book's content completed in 1880 under the direction of Commander Philip H. Cooper, USN, the name was changed to American Practical Navigator. Much of Bowditch’s original content, including his methods for clearing lunar distance

Lunar distance (navigation)

In celestial navigation, lunar distance is the angle between the Moon and another celestial body. A navigator can use a lunar distance and a nautical almanac to calculate Greenwich time...

observations, were dropped in 1880 (though a new method for clearing lunars remained in an appendix until the early 20th century). After numerous incremental revisions and printings in the period from 1914 to 1944, 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 practised 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 the primary volume
to save space and production cost. For similar reasons, the book
is now published on a larger page size. These two changes allow
the publisher to present a single, comprehensive navigation science
reference which explains modern navigational methods while respecting
traditional ones. The goal of the changes was to put as much useful
information before the navigator as possible in the most understandable and readable format.

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 chart

Nautical chart

A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a maritime area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land , natural features of the seabed, details of the coastline, navigational hazards, locations of natural and man-made aids...

s; chart datum

Chart datum

A chart datum is the level of water that charted depths displayed on a nautical chart are measured from. A chart datum is generally a tidal datum; that is, a datum derived from some phase of the tide...

s and their importance; and other material of a basic nature.

Part II: Piloting

Pilotage

Pilotage is the use of fixed visual references on the ground or sea by means of sight or radar to guide oneself to a destination, sometimes with the help of a map or nautical chart. People use pilotage for activities such as guiding vessels and aircraft, hiking and Scuba diving...

, emphasizes the practical aspects of navigating a vessel in restricted waters.

Part III: Electronic Navigation

Electronic navigation

Electronic navigation may refer to:*Global navigation satellite system, satellite navigation systems*Radio navigation, the application of radio frequencies to determining a position...

, 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

Celestial navigation

Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is a position fixing technique that has evolved over several thousand years to help sailors cross oceans without having to rely on estimated calculations, or dead reckoning, to know their position...

, 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

Oceanography

Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...

, contains chapters on practical oceanography of use to the mariner.

Part VII: Marine Meteorology

Meteorology

, incorporates weather routing and forecasting methods as well as color plates of the Beaufort

Beaufort scale

The Beaufort Scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort Wind Force Scale.-History:...

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.

External links

Full text at Wikisource
Full text (1995 ed.) in pdf files
Full text (2002 Bicentennial Ed.); one PDF per chapter. Accessed 3 September 2011

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Contents

Source

See also

External links