BOWDITCH, NATHANIEL American mathematician, was born at Salem (Mass.). He was bred to his father's business as a cooper, and afterwards apprenticed to a ship-chandler. His taste for mathematics early developed itself ; and he acquired Latin that he might study Newton's Principia. As clerk (1/95) and then as supercargo (1796, 1798, 1799) he made four long voyages ; and, being an excellent navigator, he afterwards (1802) commanded a vessel, instructing his crews in lunar and other observations. He edited Hamilton Moore's Navi gation, and in 1802 published a valuable work, New American Practical Navigator. He undertook a translation of the Mecanique celeste of P. S. Laplace, with valuable annotations (vol. i., 1829). He died at Boston on March 16, 1838.