NavList:

Frank wrote

If you're looking to buy a printed copy of the big old book from a relatively recent decade with decent coverage of the subject, at a reasonable price, then look for the 1958 edition (reprinted in 1962). It's classic.

I agree. My copy of Bowditch 1958  is on the bookshelf  close to me, ready to be consulted as required. Some years ago I was at a secondhand book fair crammed in a hall shoulder to shulder with thousands of  people and tens of thousands books. I can tell by looking at a book's spine if it is likely to be of interest to me. The large black volume stood out like a sore thumb!!!! It cost me $2.

Changing the subject about six months ago I ordered a copy of vol 2 of the Admiralty Manual of Navigation 1938. A few weeks ago it had not arrived and  I wrote the cost off, assuming it to be a victim of Covid. It has since arrived and I now have the complete set of the 1938 edition. - vo1, vol2, and vol3. I recomment this edition of the AMN - it is recent enough to mention HO214 and Hughes  Sea and Air Navigation tables but has not begun the simplification that occurs in more recent volumes.

Note that in the 1950s and 1960s there was a vol 4 of the AMN that was not available to the public. I may find a copy one day - I found  an army operations manual for patrols in Malaya during the emergency. All sorts of  top secret info. I did not buy it.

Take care buying the AMN 1928 edition. It is two volumes and some of the signatures in vol 2 come from vol1.