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However, this is what the Oxford English Dictionary has to say:

The estimation of a ship's position from the distance run by the log and the courses
steered by the compass, with corrections for current, leeway, etc., but without
astronomical observations. Hence dead LATITUDE (q.v.), that computed by dead reckoning.


1613 M. RIDLEY Magn. Bodies 147 Keeping a true, not a dead reckoning of his course. 1760
PEMBERTON in Phil. Trans. LI. 911 The latitude exhibited by the dead reckoning of the
ship. 1840 R. H. DANA Bef. Mast xxxii. 124 We had drifted too much to allow of our dead
reckoning being anywhere near the mark. 1891 Nature 3 Sept., The log, which for the
first time enabled the mariner to carry out his dead-reckoning with confidence, is
first described in Bourne's �Regiment for the Sea�, which was published in 1577. 1917
BOSANQUET & CAMPBELL Navigation for Aerial Navigators i. 4 In aerial navigation..Dead
Reckoning is the position arrived at as calculated from the estimated track and the
estimated speed made good over the ground. Ibid. 5 These data enable us to find a Dead
Reckoning position. 1935 C. G. BURGE Compl. Bk. Aviation 477/1 Dead reckoning..is a
compromise between pilotage and navigation.

fig. 1868 LOWELL Witchcraft Prose Wks. 1890 II. 372 The mind, when it sails by dead
reckoning..will sometimes bring up in strange latitudes.

In another Oxford dictionary (The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea), we have this:

The origin of the term dead reckoning, which has been in use for at least four
centuries, is obscure. It has been suggested that dead is a corruption of deduced, but
there is no etymological, or other, evidence for this.

-- Richard Langley

Quoting Gary LaPook :

> Frank wrote:
> 
> "One thing
> caught my eye. He speaks of "deduced reckoning ('ded' reckoning...not dead
> reckoning)". Of course, I've heard this "corrective" etymology before, and
> it may or may not be a real etymology, but what's interesting is that this
> story is much more popular among people who learned air navigation before
> marine navigation. It's an actual cultural difference between these two
> schools of navigation. Does anyone know who made "ded" popular among flying
> navigators? Given the strong influence of Weems on early air navigation, 
> was
> it him again? "
> 
> 
> You can't blame this one on Weems, he doesn't mention this old chestnut 
> in his books. (For that matter, where does "chestnut" come from?) Nor do 
> Chichester, Mixter, Dutton, or Bowditch.
> 
> I thought, perhaps, it sneaked in from the Army Air Corps but it is not 
> mentioned in TM 1-205, _Technical Manual Air Navigation_ (1940), TM 
> 1-206, T_echnical Manual Celestial Air Navigation_ (1941), nor in AFM 
> 51-40, _Air Navigation_ (1951.)
> 
> Your suspicions may still be correct. The first place I found this 
> mentioned was in H.O 216, _Aircraft Navigational Manual _(1941.) "Dead 
> reckoning, or the original expression, deduced reckoning, as the name 
> implies, consists of determining the aircraft's location by means of 
> estimating the true track and ground speed." (Interestingly, it is not 
> found in the 1967 edition.)
> 
> The next mention I found was in _The American Air Navigator_,  Mattingly 
> (1944.)  " The term 'Dead Reckoning' is commonly supposed to have 
> evolved from 'Deduced Reckoning.' First, 'Ded. Reckoning' as an 
> abbreviation, the form eventually became 'Dead Reckoning' for convenience."
> Next in _Air Navigation Supplement _Prepared by the Bureau of Naval 
> Personal to supplement Dutton's ninth edition (1948.) " The name is 
> derived from the term "deduced reckoning'."
> 
> Finally in _The American Flight Navigato_r, Dohm (1958.) "It is , in 
> other words,literaly reckoning by deduction, which is where the name 
> came from."
> 
> gl

===============================================================================
 Richard B. Langley                            E-mail: lang@unb.ca
 Geodetic Research Laboratory                  Web: http://www.unb.ca/GGE/
 Dept. of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering    Phone:    +1 506 453-5142
 University of New Brunswick                   Fax:      +1 506 453-4943
 Fredericton, N.B., Canada  E3B 5A3
     Fredericton?  Where's that?  See: http://www.city.fredericton.nb.ca/
===============================================================================



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