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I've had a fair amount of experience with various editions of Bowditch, from
1821 onward. Seems to me they are all essentially the same until the 1880s.
At that time the Navy dumped the original contents in favor of methods better
suited to steel and steam.

Of course the 1851 edition will have things in it the 1821 edition did not.
Changes in the Nautical Almanac had to be allowed for. There were additions,
such as Bowditch's improved method of finding the latitude from two altitudes
taken at different times of day. Thomson's lunar distance method was
inserted, in the 1830s, I believe.

In case a Canadian historian is lurking I'd like to digress a moment here.
Thomson's Tables were published in London, in 1828 if I remember correctly.
(I have a first edition, but not at hand.)  Since the book of tables went
through at least 67 editions it may have been the most popular lunar method
of all time. They are attributed to a Captain David Thomson, who is supposed
to have been British naval officer. What interests me is that Bowditch puts a
"p" in the name, spelling it "Thompson," the same as David Thompson, the
Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and explorer. Moreover, he calls him "Mr." not
"Captain." Since Bowditch speaks of Rios as "Captain Rios," why not Thompson?
Since educated people interested in science and astronomy kept in touch with
each other it seems likely that Bowditch and Thompson corresponded. Could it
be that one of the most popular set of lunar distance tables was calculated
by a fur trader, kegged up for bad weather in the Canadian Rockies?

But to get back to the point of this posting: The 1851 edition of Bowditch is
as good a choice as any if you want to learn the navigation and nautical
astronomy of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. You'll find
it there as it really was, straight up, and can learn how navigators of those
days did what we've been told they were unable to do.

Bruce

   

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