Bowditch, Nathaniel

The fourth of seven children, Nathaniel Bowditch was born in Salem on March 26, 1773. His father was a cooper and by the age of 10, Nathaniel had left school to work for his father. After two years of this work, Nathaniel was apprenticed to a ship chandler, thus beginning his interest in everything nautical. In 1795 he went to sea for the first time as a clerk, later as supercargo and finally as ship master. At sea, in studying John Moore's navigation tables, he found numerous errors. He eventually published his own guide, the New American Practical Navigator which to this day is used on ships at sea as an important reference book. Bowditch worked on a survey of the harbors of Salem, Beverly, and Marblehead as well as a translation of Pierre Laplace's work Mecanique Celeste. He also worked as president of the Essex Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Salem and Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company. He was given 2 honorary awards from Harvard University. After his death in 1838, Nathaniel Bowditch was buried in the Bowditch family plot in Cambridge's Mount Auburn Cemetery. He is also memorialized at the Mount Auburn Cemetery by a life-sized statue by R. Ball Hughes, erected in 1846. A popular children's book, a novelization of Bowditch's life was published 1955, called Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham.

See Also

Vertical File in the Salem Collection - Bowditch, Nathaniel

The New American Practical Navigator by N. Bowditch, 1817.

Carry on, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham, 2003, c1955. Yankee Stargazer by Robert E. Berry, 1941.

Nathaniel Bowditch by Harold Bowditch, 1945.