Carry on Mr. Bowditch

After Nat Bowditch’s long, perilous journey to Manila he was glad to be home again. The first people he saw waiting for him at the harbor was Amanda and Zachary Harvey. Their brother Lem Harvey had sailed on with Nat on the Astrea years before. Amanda told Nat that the boat his brothers were sailing on was lost at sea, and the boat that Lem was on had crashed. She told Nat to ask Tim Yates for the story for he was the only one that had survived the crash. As they rushed away Amanda was sobbing for the loss of her brother. Nat saw Tim Yates and asked him the story. Tim told him that they were sailing by book and using Moore’s navigation book, the book said that it was leap year and this was actually a mistake. At the break of dawn as they were sailing, they could not see the rocks that were mysteriously there and they crashed.Tim Yates was the only person that survived. As Nat walked home he was very sad not only because Lem had died but because brothers were lost at sea. Nat was also very angry at Moore for not checking his book before he published it.  Nat knew that a man depended on navigation for his life. If Moore did not check his tables even one small mistake could kill many.