The latest edition of the Bowditch. This 2019 edition of the American Practical Navigator offered by Paradise Cay Publications, is seperated into two editions, but is bound for your convenience into one handsome, hardcover book.

The American Practical Navigator (colloquially often referred to as Bowditch), was first published in 1802. The work was originally written by Nathaniel Bowditch, and is an encyclopedia of navigation. It serves as a valuable handbook on oceanography and meteorology, and contains useful tables and a maritime glossary. In 1867 the copyright and plates were bought by the Hydrographic Office of the United States Navy. As of 2019 it is still published by the U.S. Government and is available online from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the modern successor agency to the 19th Century Hydrographic Office. The publication is considered one of America’s nautical institutions.

The text has evolved with the advances in navigation practices since that first issue and continues to serve as a valuable reference for marine navigation in the modern day. The publication describes in detail the principles and factors of navigation, including piloting, electronic navigation, celestial navigation, mathematics, safety, oceanography and meterology. It also contains various tables used in typical navigational calculations and solutions, including the formulas used to derive the tabular data.