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Considered the greatest book in the history of navigation, Bowditch's Navigator was indispensable to the maritime and commercial expansion of the nineteenth century. It provides in-depth info oneverything you need to know to successfully navigate the oceans of the world.Bowditch conceived his Navigator as a revision of the error-ridden English Practical Navigator by John Hamilton Moore.More than 200 years later, Bowditch's Navigator is still being published today, and a copy is on board every U.S. Navy vessel. OVERALL CONDITION: Fair to Good, complete with all plates. In its original full sheepskin binding and with original endpapers, blanks and the publisher ad at the end. FULL TITLE:The new American practical navigator : being an epitome of navigation, containing all the tables necessary to be used with the Nautical almanac, in determining the latitude, and the longitude by lunar observations, and keeping a complete reckoning at sea : illustrated by proper rules and examples : the whole exemplified in a journal, kept from Boston to Madeira, in which all the rules of navigation are introduced : Also, the demonstration of the most useful rules of trigonometry : with many useful problems in mensuration, surveying and gauging : and a dictionary of sea-terms; with the manner of performing the most common evolutions at sea. To which are added, some general instructions and information to merchants, masters of vessels and others, concerned in navigation, relative to maritime laws and mercantile customs BOOK INFO Published in 1807 by Edmund M. Blunt in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Second edition as indicated on title page and with correct 1807 publication date. Bound in its original full sheepskin with gilt ruling to spine and a gilt-lettered leather spine label. Octavo. Collated and complete:xiv, 15-312, [276] indexes, 613-679, [1] pp. Eleven plates of maps, diagrams and engravings as called for. Illustrated within text with hundreds of illustrations, diagrams and navigation charts. There are tips for nautical safety, journaling, calculating using plane geometry, celestial navigation instruments and much more. CONDITION REPORT In Fair to Good condition for a book clearly used at sea hundreds of years ago. Scarce to find entirely complete and original as is this copy. Exterior and binding: Firmly bound. Boards and edges are rubbed and worn, leather is dry and flaking and cracking along the sun-darkened spine. Bumped corners. Interior: Pages and plates are toned to browned in sections. Foxing throughout. Multiple front leaves and a few plates with large, seawater dampening stains. Grubby endpapers and first few pages. Extensive writing on the endpapers and blanks - many mathematical calculations and navigational charting in pencil. Numerous owner inscriptions from the early 1800s in ink on blanks. A 19th century owner signature in pencil on first Contents page. Some plate offsetting. Other signs of handling like smudges, creases, a few marginal tears, multiple pages with small ink spills affecting letters at times. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nathaniel Bowditch Nathaniel Bowditch (March 26, 1773 -- March 16, 1838) was an early American mathematician remembered for his work on ocean navigation. He is often credited as the founder of modern maritime navigation. During his time at sea, Bowditch became intensely interested in the mathematics involved in celestial navigation. He worked initially with John Hamilton Moore's London-published Navigator, which was known to have many errors. To have exact tables to work from, Bowditch recomputed all of Moore's tables and rearranged and expanded the work. The task was so extensive that Bowditch decided to write his own book. The American Practical Navigator was first published in 1802 and became the standard for navigation texts for the next 150 years and is still in use today. All in all, a scarce second edition of one of the most important navigational texts ever written, very scarce to find entirely comp.
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