co 
Life and Character of Nathaniel Bowditch. iL 
year, it will be found to be 7° 33’, making a difference of twenty- 
three miles. Mr. Waters fortunately had a Nautical Almanac on 
board, and likewise a copy of Pike’s Arithmetic, which explained 
the reason why the year 1800 was noéleap year. In consequence 
of this he escaped the dangers to which other vessels in the 
same latitude were subjected; for he afterwards read in the 
newspapers of several ships that were wrecked solely by reason 
of that blunder. It was, indeed, quite time for Hamilton Moore 
to be laid up, high and dry, on the shelf. 
Before publishing his own work, Mr. Bowditch had prepared 
for Mr. Blunt two corrected editions of: Moore’s book, in which 
he had actually discovered and corrected eight thousand errors in 
the nautical tables, as he himself testifies in the preface to the 
last stereotype edition. 
Such was the germ of “ The New American Practical Naviga- 
tor,” the first edition of which he issued in the year 1800, at the 
age of twenty-seven ; a work abounding with the actual results of 
his own experience, and containing simpler and more expeditious 
formulas for working the nautical problems. This work has been 
of immense service to the nautical and commercial interests of 
this country. Had Dr. see. never done any thing else, he 
would still, by this single act, have conferred a lasting obligation 
upon his native land; and the ort legislature might well 
acknowledge it by prceiien a monument to his memory. Just 
consider the simple fact, that every vessel that sails from the 
ports of the United States, from Eastport to New Orleans, is nav- 
igated by the rules and tables of his book. And this has been 
the case nearly ever since its publication, sags fit years ago. 
‘ és 
- each ace x shall keep a journal 
very thing remarkable 
