After finding a way to teach the ship's crew members to understand navigation, Nat, a self-taught mathematician and astronomer in eighteenth-century Salem, Massachusetts, writes down his explanations and compiles them into "The American Practical Navigator, " also known as the "Sailors' Bible."

"The islands of the Chesapeake Bay are slipping from sight, flooding into oblivion as water levels rise at alarming rates." "This book surveys the changing fortunes of the bay's forty-odd islands - from Garrett in the north to Gwynn's and James in the south. Retired oceanographer William B. Cronin used historical nautical charts, current data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and colonial and state records to document...