Finding Nat Bowditch

    A seven year-old boy with wet hair and firetruck pajamas plopped on the couch and wiggled back until his toes stuck off the edge.  His mom, tired from a long day sighed and eased down beside him.  Brushing a stray wisp of hair from her face, she picked up a battered library book with a brown woven cover.

    “Chapter Nine:  Anchor to Windward.  When it was time to close the chandlery for the night, Mr. Ropes and Mr. Hodges still had not returned...”

    The little boy was no longer perched on a plaid sofa in a 21st century home.  He was perched on a towering clerk’s desk in a Salem ship chandlery, pondering his future under new indentureship.  His hair was long and neatly tied back, his breeches simple but tidy.  He understood the unique challenges of growing up in the late 1700s.

    The book my mother was reading to me was Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham.  Carry On, Mr. Bowditch gave me a passion for exploring and learning new things.  It made me learn everything I could about sailing, navigation, and the history of early American shipping.  When I was thirteen I even attempted to read Nat Bowditch’s magnum opus: The American Practical Navigator, and was crushed when I realized that it was still to technical for me to understand.  

    I have read Carry On, Mr. Bowditch eight times.  I can quote paragraphs of the book, and in my mind walk the streets, halls, and decks of the places Latham writes about.  These places have always been in my head, though.

    This summer I will be visiting Salem, MA.  For the first time I will see his home, his haunts, even a replica of one of his ships.  This photojournal tells Nat Bowditch’s story, and my story of discovery through the landmarks of his life.