bering systems Bowditch introduced over 150 years earlier. Oh, and did you tear out those subscription request postcards? They're blank forms. In his day, Bowditch gave mariners the numbers to navigate the seas. Today, we navigate a sea of numbers. It's all part of a modern world Bowditch helped to create. ,t NOTES ! Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 21 June 1791, in J. C. A Stagg, ed., The Papers offames Madison, Digital Edition (Charlottesville: University Press ofVirginia, 2010). 2 John Evans, The juvenile Tourist (London, 1809), 334. 3 H. Harry Wilmot Buxton, Memoir ofthe Life and Labours ofthe Late Charles Babbage, FR.S. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1987), 6. 4 Alexander Young, The Varieties ofHuman Greatness. A Discourse on the Life and Character ofNathaniel Bowditch, LLD., FR. S (Boston, 1840), 33. 5 Andrew Mackay, The Complete Navigator (London, 1804), xiv. 6 United States' Gazette, 9 Feb. 1807. 7 Nathaniel Bowditch, The New American Practical Navigator, 2d ed. (Newburyport, 1807), ix-x. 8 [William Bentley], Essex Register, 29 Apr. 1818.
CATALOGUE OF JOUR KALS. VoL. 2.-No. 11. Kc1cl1 Three F'ricnds, James S1unr1 master, from, !he fslc of .Fnuicc co U11.tllvin1 tmd back, thence 10 511.lcm, 1801-1 802.
No. J2. Ship Active, Goorgc Nichob 1M.•1er, from Salem lo Sumtll rn and Manilh&, 1hc11cc back to Fulmoutlt in .Engl1tml, 180 1- 1802.
No. JS. Ship Recovery, Luther Dlil.111 muster, from Sa1em to 5'1111 11 11'1l1 and thence to Cadiz, 1802. No. 14. Ship •:11."4!x 1 J05t'ph Orne mtl.iter, from Salem to Calcutta, um] back, t1ia 'cw York, 1802-1803. l'io. 15. Brig 'J'clcmachus, Hl!nry Elkin• mast~, from Sa· lcm 10 Arabia, (l\fnculla) a.nd back, J800-180S.
Kept by Victor Blulr,jr. No. 16. Ship 'l'wo Brothcr1, Jolin Holman mn!ler, from Gibmhar to tbe (1!11 of fnnce, o.nd thence to Sa· lem, 1802-1805. No. lT. Urig Sukey, George Ropes mnstcr, from Virginia to the West lmlies, Alcxundria, Lialion1 Rochelle, HMTe and Snlcm, J802- 1803 . No. 18. Ship flnzard, Richard Gardner muter, from Sa· )cm to lhwre de Grace, Antwerp nnd CalcuUa1 thence bo.ck lO Salem, 1802-1 80:3. Kept by JOK.11h Phippen.
No. 19. Ship Bonctta, Benjamin Ruuell master, from Salem 10 Moc.hu, antl back, l SOS-1804 . Kept by Thoma.. B. Osgood. No. 20. Ship Putnam, alhanicl Dowdi1cb master, from Sa1em to Sumatra, hie of Fran~, and back, 1802- l &OS.
9 Minutes
of the East India Marine Society, 4 Jan. 1804, vol. l, Bl, East India Marine Society Records [EIMSR], Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. 10 Minutes of the East India Marine Society, 4 Nov. 1801, Bl, Fl, EIMSR. 11 Report of the East India Marine Society Committee to Procure a New Catalogue of the Museum, 5 Feb. 1820, ser. VII,
Nathaniel Bowditch memorial in the Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
SEAHISTORY 160,AUTUMN2017
(left) Since its founding in 1799, the East India Marine Society had required its members to submit nautical and commercial intelligence from their voyages into the Pacific and Indian oceans, but compliance was intermittent and information haphazard. When Bowditch took over as "Inspector ofjournals" in 1804, he regularized information gathering by issuing printed directions and standardized logbooks. Here we see his final product: numbered, bound, and indexed volumes ofjournals. No. 20 is Bowditch's own record as captain ofan 1802-03 voyage to Sumatra and what is now called Mauritius.
Scrapbook no. 2, EIMSR. 12 Nathaniel Bowditch to Elijah Alvord, 12 Jan. 1826, LA-1, Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company Collection, Baker Library, Harvard Business School. 13 Harvard University, Corporation, Corporation Records: Minutes, 1643-1989, Vol. 7, 15 Nov. 1832, Harvard University Archives. 14 Nathaniel Bowditch, "College History," 1828, Harvard University Archives, 56. 15 Edmund Quincy, Life ofJosiah Quincy ofMassachusetts (Boston, 1869), 482. Tamara Plakins Thornton is an awardwinning author and professor of history at the State University ofNew York, Buffalo. This article is based on her recent book, Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers: How a Nineteenth-Century Man of Business, Science, and the Sea Changed American Life, winner of the 2016 john Lyman Book Award in the category ofNaval and Maritime Biography and Autobiography. john Lyman Books Awards are awarded by the North American Society for Ocean History (NASOH) to authors and editors whose books contribute significantly to the understanding of the maritime and naval history ofNorth America, its rivers and lakes and adjoining oceans. Dr. Thornton's book was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016 (ISBN 978-1-46962693-2). Her current research on early America focuses on the quantitative sciences, mathematical geography, and the impact of terrestrial and celestial globes on global thinking.
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