22 chapters
9 hour read
Selected Chapters
22 chapters
MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY THE PATHFINDER OF THE SEAS
MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY THE PATHFINDER OF THE SEAS
It is eminently appropriate that a life of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury should be written in the environment of Annapolis, and by a professor in the United States Naval Academy, and The Maury Memorial Association is deeply appreciative of this splendid tribute to the name and fame of one of America’s greatest naval officers and benefactors....
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FOREWORD
FOREWORD
I believe that the most instructive form of reading is biography. In the story of a man’s life one can see in quick review the struggle that man went through to attain or to fail to attain his heart’s desire. For the professional man, life stories of his colleagues and predecessors focus down to the particular problems of the profession. This is essentially the case with the story of a man like Maury. As a naval officer, Maury’s work will always remain outstanding. He was one of our pioneer inve
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PUBLISHER’S STATEMENT
PUBLISHER’S STATEMENT
Measured by man’s calendar it has been a long stretch of time since he first ventured forth in crude canoes on the waters skirting his early habitations. The art of handling ships—seamanship and navigation—began before man could read or write; it was ships that first quickened his imagination and enabled him to measure his skill against Nature’s elements and released him from the encirclement of small operations. Western Europe and its civilization saved themselves from being pushed into the Atl
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PREFACE
PREFACE
This biography is based chiefly upon the Maury Papers, comprising letters, diaries, scientific notebooks, and other manuscripts, which were presented to the United States Government in 1912 by Maury’s only living child, Mrs. Mary Maury Werth, and other descendants, and then deposited in the Division of Manuscripts, Library of Congress. Other valuable sources are the letter books, numbering many volumes, in the Office of the Superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, and
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I His Early Years
CHAPTER I His Early Years
No other great American has ever received so many honors abroad and so little recognition at home as has the oceanographer, Matthew Fontaine Maury. While his own country was but meagerly, and sometimes grudgingly, rewarding him, there was hardly a civilized foreign country that did not bestow upon him some mark of distinguished consideration. This was not merely a case of distance lending enchantment to the view, but rather one of perspective; those near him with but few exceptions had only a pa
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II His Three Cruises
CHAPTER II His Three Cruises
Maury’s early years in the navy afforded the lad from the backwoods of Tennessee wonderful experiences, and excellent opportunities for supplementing the desultory education that he had received. To a young man of his intellectual capacity, these voyages to foreign lands during the most plastic years of his life were invaluable in the development of a mind capable of grappling later with questions and problems which concerned the entire world. Luckily for the young officer, the very first ship t
30 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III He Resorts to the Pen
CHAPTER III He Resorts to the Pen
When the Potomac arrived in Boston, Maury applied for leave of absence and went directly to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he was married to Ann Herndon on July 15, 1834. In this charming old Virginia town he established his residence for the next seven years, living on Charlotte Street in a two-story frame house with a large old-fashioned garden, which he rented from a Mr. Johnston. He had always been generous with his money to different members of his family, and it is related that, as a cons
33 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV His Astronomical Work
CHAPTER IV His Astronomical Work
Maury took charge, on July 1, 1842, of the Depot of Charts and Instruments, of which he had just been made the superintendent by Secretary of the Navy Upshur. This depot had been established by the Navy Department in 1830, and Lieutenants Goldsborough, Wilkes, and Gilliss in succession had been its former superintendents. Wilkes had moved it from the western part of the city to Capitol Hill probably, as has been suggested, that its virtues and its needs might the more readily be noticed by Congr
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V His Wind and Current Charts
CHAPTER V His Wind and Current Charts
At the top of all the pilot charts issued by the Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department are written these words: “Founded upon the researches made and the data collected by Lieutenant M. F. Maury, U. S. Navy”. This is an appropriate memorial to Maury’s most practical contribution to science,—that which has given him the name “Pathfinder of the Seas”. For a long time he had recognized the need for charts showing the winds and currents of the sea at different seasons; and it will be remembered
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI His Physical Geography of the Sea
CHAPTER VI His Physical Geography of the Sea
Maury’s investigations of the winds and currents of the sea led him into researches connected with all the phenomena of the ocean, the results of which were so extensive and so valuable as to win for him the right to be called the first great oceanographer of the world. At the beginning of his work at the Depot of Charts and Instruments, he uncovered in the old log books facts relating to the Gulf Stream, which led him to certain interesting conclusions concerning this great ocean current that h
34 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII His Extra-Professional Interests
CHAPTER VII His Extra-Professional Interests
During the many years he spent at the Naval Observatory, Maury was by no means a narrow-minded specialist, as can be readily seen by a consideration of the wide range of his interests, which extended from the planting of sunflowers to keep malaria away from the Observatory to speculations as to the navigation of the air and a curious machine that was a kind of combination of phonograph and telephone. Before going forward with the story of his life, it would be well, therefore, to pause and consi
40 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII His Treatment by the “Retiring Board”
CHAPTER VIII His Treatment by the “Retiring Board”
It must not be supposed that Maury spent only halcyon days during his long period of service at the Naval Observatory. When it is remembered that his contacts with men were extremely numerous, and that the opportunities for unpleasant controversy were almost without number in view of the fact that he was such an ardent advocate of whatever question he took up, whether it was scientific, economic, or political, it is truly remarkable that there were so few who became hostile to him. But strange a
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX Shadows of Coming Troubles
CHAPTER IX Shadows of Coming Troubles
Though Maury emerged with victory perched upon his banners from his bitter conflict with the “Retiring Board”, yet he was not to enjoy again the peaceful pursuit of scientific and philosophical researches. His mind was to be distracted by the consideration of a question which was before long to rend the country in twain and incidentally cause the wreck of his scientific ambitions. Maury had always been distinctively a sympathizer in all the hopes and ambitions of the South, but he had early reco
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X As His Friends and Family Knew Him Before the War
CHAPTER X As His Friends and Family Knew Him Before the War
Before passing on to a consideration of Maury’s connection with the events of the Civil War, one should give some attention to him as he appeared to his friends and family during the ante bellum decade when success, fame, and happiness were all his. Some idea of his personality has, perhaps, already been conveyed through the discussion of his work and achievements up to this point in his career, though only incidentally; now the aim will be to focus attention for awhile on Maury the man. The ran
28 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI His Part in the Civil War: In Virginia
CHAPTER XI His Part in the Civil War: In Virginia
Maury resigned from the naval service and left the National Observatory on April 20, 1861. He declared that he worked as hard and as faithfully for Uncle Sam up to three o’clock of that day as he had ever done, and at that hour turned over all the public property and records of the office to Lieutenant Whiting, the officer who was next in authority. He left the Observatory with the deepest regret. “Its associations”, he wrote, “the treasures there, which, with your help and that of thousands of
45 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII His Part in the Civil War: In England
CHAPTER XII His Part in the Civil War: In England
Though Maury arrived in Charleston the latter part of September, it was not until October 12, 1862 that he departed with his twelve year old son “Brave” on board the steamer Herald to run the Union blockade. An attempt had been made some three days before and had been unsuccessful, as the vessel had run into an enemy sloop of war and was forced to put back within the protection of the forts. The second trial was successful, but it almost ended in disaster. “We crossed the bar once”, Maury wrote,
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIII With Maximilian in Mexico
CHAPTER XIII With Maximilian in Mexico
When Maury reached St. Thomas in the West Indies, about the middle of May, 1865, he learned from the newspapers that the Confederacy had completely collapsed, but he continued his voyage to Havana. From here his son Matthew, Jr. was sent on home to Virginia; while Maury himself waited to consider what was best for him to do—an old man now broken in health and ruined in finances, separated from family and friends, and without home or country. Though he had saved practically nothing from the wreck
28 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIV Reunited with His Family in England
CHAPTER XIV Reunited with His Family in England
Maury arrived in England from Mexico, on March 29, 1866, and was once more united with his wife and younger children in London, at No. 30 Harley Street. His appearance had been so completely changed by the sorrows, hardships, and anxieties of the long years of separation that none of his children knew him. Indeed, his youngest daughter, on seeing him for the first time after his arrival, exclaimed, “This is not my papa! This is an old man with a white beard!” As soon as Maury had departed from M
33 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XV His Last Years in Virginia
CHAPTER XV His Last Years in Virginia
Maury arrived at New York on July 16, 1868, and was agreeably surprised at his treatment there. “The custom house authorities”, he wrote, “received me with marked consideration and passed all luggage without difficulty”. Early in August he reached Richmond, much pleased with his reception in his native state. “In the South”, he declared, “it’s been a sort of ovation.... My coming home to share the hard lot of these people instead of accepting French honors is looked upon as a high display of pat
42 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVI His Posthumous Reputation
CHAPTER XVI His Posthumous Reputation
Immediately after Maury’s death there was a veritable flood of eulogies of the character and services of the great scientist. They were by no means confined to the colleges, legislators, and newspapers of Virginia; but the scientific journals throughout the world made known in unmistakable terms the high estimation in which he was held. For example, the British journal Nature of March 20, 1873, declared that Maury was the first to show how meteorology could be raised to the dignity of a science,
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PILOT CHART OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC
PILOT CHART OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC
The object of this chart is to show the relative number of times in every 5° square of the ocean that the wind blows from the several points of the compass for each month. As an example, take the square between 5° & 10° N. and 20° & 25° W. The figures in the N.E. corner of the circumscribed square show that in this square, there have been examined 294 records of the winds in Dec; 212 in Jan; & 161 in Feb; and the numbers 33, 18, 8, in the N.E. quadrant of the inner circle
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PILOT CHART OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
PILOT CHART OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
The following is a summary of information contained on this chart, and in order that certain items may be more readily identified, they have been numbered and a duplicate number inclosed in a circle placed on the chart as close to the item or feature as practicable: Fog at sea. On the Current Reports to the Hydrographic Office the set and drift should be the difference between the dead reckoning position (corrected for all known errors except current) and the position determined by astronomical
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter