Carry On, Mr. Bowditch: Chapters 7–13

Another errand took him to Ruck’s Creek, called “Knocker’s Hole,” because all day you could hear the thump, thump, thump of the caulker’s mallets, caulking the seams of ships.

“No, sir. I’m copying what it says about surveying. But there’s a good bit to look up. It’s a little hard to tell where the start of it is. I’ve looked up trigonometry—that’s the kind of mathematics they use—and I’ve looked up theodolites—that’s the kind of telescope they use. Then there’s something about finding your position by sighting a star, so I got into astronomy. I can’t tell yet where surveying starts—with astronomy, or trigonometry or the theodolite, or—”

After he’d finished his bookkeeping, he started a new notebook: THE PRACTICAL SURVEYOR: Nathaniel Bowditch. County of Essex and State of Massachusetts, New England. March the Seventh, 1787.

It was July, and the summer doldrums had settled over the chandlery.

Nat smiled at the postscript: "Shhh! It’s a secret! Tear this note across eleven times and scatter the 2048 pieces to the wind!”

“I don’t know whether you’ve ever heard of it, Nat, but we have a special library here—The Salem Philosophical Library. A group of us started it about ten years ago. We’ve been adding to it, year after year. Now, I think we have the best scientific library between here and Philadelphia. You may never have heard of it—since it’s a private library. Only members can use it.”

He watched the ebbing tide carry them out until they sank.

He had applied to Congress for a patent on a steam engine he’d made to run a boat.

“All right; English pronunciation is crazy. But all I want of French is to be able to read it. Can you help me with that—and not bother about the pronunciation?”
“Never! I couldn’t stand hearing you mangle it!”

I haven’t a notion what you’re talking about, but I’m sure it’s wonderful.

Sammy was sixteen when he swaggered into the chandlery one day and grinned down at Nat.

The Press is dangerous in a despotic government, but in a free country it is very useful, so long as it is free; for it is very important that people should be told everything that concerns them.

Dr. Bentley nodded soberly. “Remember that, always.” Then his eyes twinkled.

“We can use your knack with figures.”

A berth as clerk on the Henry.

“When I finish my work on the survey,” Nat said, “I’ll have a hundred and thirty-five dollars. Could I invest that much in a venture, and have room for it?”

Nat hailed him. “Any news?”

There are only two things I expressly forbid. You’ll never break a law of any port you enter. And you’ll never—never enter into slave trade.

Captain Prince spoke to Mr. Collins, his first mate—a tall, rangy man with a lean face and cool gray eyes.

The log checked the speed, the lookout warned of dangers they could see, and the lead warned of dangers beneath the surface of the water—sudden shoals and reefs where they might go aground.

At eight bells, when Mr. Collins relieved him, Nat stumbled below, surprised to find he was utterly exhausted.

He hurried topside, fumbled his sextant out of its case, and dropped the case. He flushed, and didn’t pick it up.

Captain Prince drawled, “Don’t you think you’ll need a shade, Mr. Bowditch?”

When the sun reached its zenith and stood still the fractional moment, Nat took his reading.

Nat checked his nautical almanac closely, hunting for the first night the moon promised to be in a good position for a lunar.

I’m trying to find out a little more about where we are. We know our latitude—how far north of the equator we are. The trick is to find our longitude—how far east or west we are.

First, we have to pick a north-south line to be east or west of. And since we used to belong to England, we use the same line that the English use—the north-south line through London. We call it the meridian of London.

Those Frenchies were so pleased that they bought my whole cargo of wine—just like that! At one thousand livres a cask!

The next day the long, tedious business of lightering their cargo began.

Some days the rain came in torrents and they could do nothing.