[Richard Hall Gower].
A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Seamanship...by an Officer in the Service of
the India Company. London: for G.G. and J. Robinson &
Gilbert, Wright, and Hooke, 1793.
This slim volume, the first edition of a standard work
of naval theory, is indeed a treatise, with section
headings such as "Upon the Centre of Motion" and "A
Mechanical Increase of Power is Loss of Time". But it is
also a practical manual for the handling of a ship under
various conditions to the best advantage. The model of
the ship can be rotated and the sails adjusted to
provide representations of various situations.
Currently, it is set in accordance with the instructions
on page 23.
While serving as a midshipman aboard an East India
Company ship, Richard Hall Gower earned the nickname
the "Young Philosopher". Gower was a prolific naval
architect, designing a number of successful ships as
well as making numerous smaller improvements to existing
designs. In the Advertisement to his Treatise, Gower
describes the book as a good value: "When the prices of
most books on Seamanship are considered, it is hoped
that this little treatise will be thought reasonable,
especially since the Figure at the beginning of the work
is a matter of some nicety".
William Mountaine.
The Seaman's Vade-Mecum, and
Defensive War by Sea. London: Mount and Page, 1757.
First published in 1744, Mountaine's handbook for
seamen was immensely popular, with 12 editions
appearing in print by 1783. As is evident from the
copy on display here, it was also used extensively
by actual sailors: 
hand-written annotations indicate
at least 4 different owners during the period from
1760 to 1804. One of these owners, Jeremiah Noble,
added a brief poem beneath his signature: "If this I
lend to any friend/ Pray keep it not too long/ Keep
dear & fair & send with care/ To whom it doth
belong". The book includes a fold-out diagram of a
ship keyed to descriptions in the text, and one of
the previous owners has added additional material
and new numbers to the illustration.
Mountaine himself seems to have been an educator
with a wide range of interests. Included in this
volume is a full page advertisement for his boarding
school, which offered training in "Accompts,
Book-Keeping...also, French, Drawing, Music, Fencing
and Dancing".
[David Steel].
The Art of Sail-Making, as
Practised in the Royal Navy. London, for David
Steel, 1796.
David Steel has been described as the "doyen of
all the maritime publishers" of his age.
Originally published in 1794 as part of his most
popular work, Elements and Practice of Rigging
and Seamanship, this manual of sail-making
includes a dictionary of terms and tools with
engraved illustrations, rules for determining
needed quantity of canvas and rope for a
particular type of sail, and descriptions of
how each individual type of sail is created.
Like a number of the works exhibited here, The
Art of Sail-Making taps into the increased
demand for skilled professional sailors and
crewmembers occasioned by the growing dominance
of the British Navy during the eighteenth
century.
The Sea-man's Companion, or Vade-Mecum
. London,1729.
Like William Mountaine's vade mecum this handbook
contains a dictionary of nautical terms, a list of
officers and their pay, rules and regulations, a
limited discussion of the basic principles of
navigation, and other miscellaneous information
necessary for the new sailor. This work also
emphasizes teaching simple mathematics, "fitted to
the Meanest Capacity". The pages exhibited here
discuss the duties of seamen.
Pedro De Medina. L'Art de Naviguer. Rouen: Theodore
Reinsart, 1607.
Pedro de Medina, whose Arte de Navegar was originally
published in Spain in 1545, has been called "the founder
of the literature of seamanship". At the very least, his
work was extremely popular and was soon translated into
French, Italian, and English in 13 editions during the
next century. Among its many contributions, his work
represents the first occurrence in print of a discussion
of magnetic variation, the difference between the
earth's magnetic north and true north and an aberration
that would continue to plague navigators for centuries
to come.
The pages exhibited here include a fold-out map of the
Atlantic Ocean similar to the sea charts that were a
staple of navigation during the period. Typical features
include rhumb lines (the geometrical pattern of
intersecting lines)—which allowed navigators to plot a
simple compass course from one point to another, even
though such courses were less efficient over long
distances—and the compass rose in the center.
Nathaniel Bowditch. The Improved Practical Navigator.
London: for James and John Hardy and David Steel, 1802
Bowditch's American Practical Navigator was
the standard work of American navigation throughout the
nineteenth century.
The pages exhibited here include a description and
illustration of John Hadley's quadrant. The quadrant is
an instrument used to measure the angle between two
objects (for instance the horizon and the sun), which is
still in use, in modified form, today. Accurate readings
of the sun's height, particularly at noon, were an
essential component of navigation, and a number of
instruments—from the complicated astrolabe to the bulky
cross-staff—had been in use for hundred's of years prior
to Hadley's invention. The primary drawback of these
earlier instruments is that they were difficult to use
accurately from the rolling deck of a ship at sea. Using
a system of mirrors, the quadrant (or variations like
the sextant) allows a navigator to bring the horizon and
the sun into alignment in a viewfinder and then read the
resulting angle on the scale at the bottom. This design
reduced the difficulty of taking an accurate reading,
and the quadrant became a standard navigational tool for
years to come.