Nathaniel Bowditch. 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... New York: Edmund M. Blunt, For William Hooker, 1821. Fifth stereotype edition. Contemporary tree calf, spine gilt-ruled with gilt-titled black morocco label. 8vo; [i-iv], v-xiv, [2], [1]-272, 296, [555]-594, [2], 595-596, [4]. With folding engraved map frontispiece, (11) additional engraved plates, numerous illustrations and tables, and final advertisement pages. This copy with the label of Baltimore instrument maker Benjamin K. Hagger on paste-down. Howes B657.

9 x 5 3/4 in.

Howes calls it the "first accurate navigator's guide." Originally based on an English guide from 1772, Bowditch's corrections were significant and ultimately led to an entirely new work. First published in the small coastal city of Newburyport, Massachusetts, it was quite popular and reprinted numerous times through the first few decades of the 19th century. (Howes, p. 68)

Boards scuffed with edgewear, corners bumped and bent, spine with creasing, rubbing at tail and chipping at head, creasing and rubbing at joints with one small dent; signature of previous owner Henry Wilde of Boston on paste-down, light cracking at hinges, endpapers with creases, folds, and offsetting; map with toning, light foxing, offsetting, folds and one small tear, outer edge browned and with small loss slightly impacting print; interior foxed, with light to heavy toning, spotting, offsetting, and occasional small stain, pencil annotations, grime, small edge or corner chip, loss, or tear, and frayed edge; frequent damp staining, mostly at lower margin and heaviest through p. 20, dark stain at lower margin impacting last third of volume. A fair to good copy.