Nathaniel Bowditch (1773–1838) was a self-educated mathematician and astronomer who created The American Practical Navigator, a foundational navigation text first published in 1801 and still in use today. Known for meticulous attention to detail and a commitment to making complex ideas accessible, Bowditch simplified lunar observation methods for determining longitude and later translated Laplace's Mecanique Celeste into English.
The article explores how Nathaniel Bowditch might have taught navigation to sailors who could only add and subtract by using lookup tables of logarithms and trigonometric functions. While theoretically possible, the scheme would require extensive tables and careful algorithm design to minimize the mathematical sophistication needed.