I do have 1.14.0 installed - apparently from Ubuntu:
sudo nginx -V
nginx version: nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu)

I understand that this version is available"
1.17.8-1~bionic 500
500 http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/ubuntu bionic/nginx amd64 Packages

I want to be able to rewrite URLs. (Two days of blood, sweat, and tears trying to get it to work.)

Finally, I see a minor note, on a page that discusses why rewriting isn't working, that one should make sure that the rewrite module is installed.

I start researching on how to get the module installed.

Do I really need to recompile Nginx????

If this oversight is corrected in v1.17, do I really need to uninstall 1.14 first, then install 1.17?

(I tried updating, but I got errors with the phrase 'broken packages" in them.)