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Transcriber’s note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY
The Pathfinder of the Seas
by
CHARLES LEE LEWIS
Associate Professor
United States Naval Academy
[Illustration]
Illustrated
1927
The United States Naval Institute
Annapolis
Copyright, 1927
The United States Naval Institute
Annapolis, Maryland
TO MY WIFE
LOUISE QUARLES LEWIS
Richmond, Virginia.
October 25, 1927.
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.
[Signature: Mrs. E.E. Moffitt.]
President, The Maury Association.
[Illustration: _Wide World Photo_
COMMANDER RICHARD EVELYN BYRD, U. S. NAVY (RETIRED)
Who has written the Foreword of this biography]
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 investigators of the geography of the sea and the
physics of the air. And at the same time he never lost sight of the
intrinsic needs of his Service.
Since travel in the present age has become so common Maury may be
looked upon as one of our great benefactors. His professional work
turned out to be of happily wide application, not only for the
seafaring man, but for the flier.
As an inspirational character Maury was also a noteworthy American. His
life was marked by that persistent industry peculiar to the successful
research worker. There is little indication that he ever saw ahead of
him immediate reward of any great size. But his toil was ever directly
applied for the adventure of discovering something new or different in
the maritime fields in which he worked.
Because I am soon to start on my own expedition towards the South
Pole I am particularly interested in a letter Maury wrote under date
of August 20, 1860, in which he said: “I have reason to believe that
there is, about the South Pole, a comparatively mild climate. The
unexplored regions there embrace an area equal in extent to about
one-sixth of all the known land on the surface of the earth. I am
quietly seeking to create in the minds of some an interest upon the
subject, hoping thereby to foster a desire in right quarters for an
Antarctic expedition.”
RICHARD E. BYRD
_Commander, U. S. Navy_ (_Retired_)
September 26, 1927
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 Atlantic by the flanking movement afforded by ships—increased
knowledge of navigation.
No single individual has done more for his fellow man in lessening the
hazards of navigation than has MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY.
For the safe navigation of aircraft the world is waiting to-day for
another MAURY. Aerology is in its infancy.
No other life of this distinguished naval officer and scientist has
been published in America and the author has spent the greater part of
four years in its preparation.
To Commander Byrd the author and the publisher are indebted for the
Foreword.
To the Hydrographic Office, Navy Department, appreciation for
assistance and advice rendered is expressed.
That MAURY’S fame and honor may ever grow greater and that his life’s
work may be an inspiration for a future PATHFINDER OF THE AIR appears
a sufficient reason for the publication of this biography by his
brother officers of the NAVY.
UNITED STATES NAVAL INSTITUTE
September 27, 1927
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 the official papers relating to Maury in the Navy
Department Library. Miscellaneous Maury letters are to be found in the
New York Public Library, the Public Library of the City of Boston,
the United States Naval Academy Museum, the Peabody Institute Library
of Baltimore, the Virginia State Library, the Virginia Historical
Society Library, and the Yale University Library. Mrs. C. Alphonso
Smith, Raleigh, North Carolina, has one Maury letter and some fifty
others, written by contemporaries in reference to the Maury Testimonial
which was presented to him in England after the Civil War. Of great
importance, also, are Maury’s own voluminous writings, and the numerous
references to him in the periodicals and newspapers of his time.
For assistance in gathering material for this biography I wish to
acknowledge my indebtedness to various members of the Maury family.
In the first place, I wish to mention the “Life of Maury” by his
daughter, Diana Fontaine Maury Corbin, which was of considerable
help to me. Of his living descendants, Mrs. James Parmelee, a
granddaughter, of Washington, D. C., and Mrs. Matthew Fontaine Maury,
Jr., a daughter-in-law, of Cincinnati, Ohio gave me much assistance.
Mrs. Werth of Richmond, Virginia, and her two daughters, Mrs. N.
Montgomery Osborne of Norfolk, Virginia, and Mrs. Littleton Fitzgerald
of Richmond, very patiently answered my numerous questions and
furnished me interesting and very desirable information. The list of
all the other persons who have helped me, in one way or another, in
the writing of this book would be too long to set down in a preface;
but among the many I wish to single out by name the following: Mr. J.
C. Fitzpatrick, Assistant Chief, Division of Manuscripts, Library of
Congress; Captain Edwin T. Pollock, U. S. Navy, Superintendent, and Mr.
William D. Horigan, Librarian, of the United States Naval Observatory;
Captain Dudley W. Knox, U. S. Navy (Retired), Superintendent, and Miss
Nannie Dornin Barney, Archivist, of the Naval Records and Library of
the Navy Department; Mr. Andrew Keogh, Librarian, Yale University
Library; Mr. H. M. Lydenberg, Reference Librarian, New York Public
Library; Mr. Charles F. D. Belden, Director of the Public Library of
the City of Boston; Miss Helen C. Bates, Reference Librarian, Detroit
Public Library; Dr. William G. Stanard, Corresponding Secretary and
Librarian, Virginia Historical Society; Mr. Edward V. Valentine,
Acting President of the Virginia Historical Society; Dr. H. R.
McIlwaine, Librarian of the Virginia State Library; R. H. Crockett,
Esq., Miss Susie Gentry, and Mr. Park Marshall, Vice President of the
Tennessee Historical Society,—all of Franklin, Tennessee; Mr. John
Trotwood Moore, State Librarian and Archivist, and Mr. A. P. Foster,
Assistant Librarian and Archivist, Tennessee State Library, Nashville;
President A. B. Chandler, Jr., State Teachers College, Fredericksburg,
Virginia, and Mrs. V. M. Fleming, President of the Kenmore Association,
Fredericksburg; Mr. John W. Herndon, Alexandria, Virginia; Harold
T. Clark, Esq., of Squire, Sanders and Demsey, Counsellors at Law,
Cleveland, Ohio; William M. Robinson, Jr., Augusta, Georgia; Mr. Gaston
Lichstenstein, Corresponding Secretary of the Matthew Fontaine Maury
Association, Richmond; and, last but by no means least, Assistant
Professor Richard Johnson Duval, Librarian, Mr. Lewis H. Bolander,
Assistant Librarian, and Mr. James M. Saunders, Cataloguer, of the
United States Naval Academy Library, Annapolis, Maryland.
C. L. L.
_Annapolis, Maryland._
“When I became old enough to reflect, it was the aim at which all
my energies were directed to make myself a useful man. I soon found
that occupation, for some useful end or other, was the true secret
of happiness.”
(_Maury to Rutson Maury, August 31, 1840._)
“It’s the talent of industry that makes a man. I don’t think that
so much depends upon intellect as is generally supposed; but
_industry and steadiness of purpose_, they are the things.”
(_Maury to Frank Minor, July 25, 1855._)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. His Early Years 1
II. His Three Cruises 10
III. He Resorts to the Pen 26
IV. His Astronomical Work 44
V. His Wind and Current Charts 51
VI. His Physical Geography of the Sea 66
VII. His Extra-professional Interests 85
VIII. His Treatment by the “Retiring Board” 107
IX. Shadows of Coming Troubles 118
X. As His Friends and Family Knew Him before the War 128
XI. His Part in the Civil War: In Virginia 143
XII. His Part in the Civil War: In England 168
XIII. With Maximilian in Mexico 186
XIV. Reunited with His Family in England 202
XV. His Last Years in Virginia 220
XVI. His Posthumous Reputation 242
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_Page_
The Richmond Maury Monument, by F. William Sievers 1
U. S. S. “Brandywine” 9
Lieut. M. F. Maury, U. S. Navy 27
U. S. Naval Observatory, during Maury’s Superintendency 45
Decorations Conferred upon Maury 50
Matthew Fontaine Maury, Superintendent of the Observatory 67
The Set of Silver Medals Presented to Maury by Pope Pius IX 84
Gold Medals Bestowed upon Maury 84
Portrait of Maury, in Maury Hall, U. S. Naval Academy 106
The Maury Statue in Hamburg, Germany 119
The Bust of Matthew Fontaine Maury, by E. V. Valentine 129
Portrait of Maury and Raphael Semmes 142
Portrait of Maury and the Reverend Doctor Tremlett 142
C. S. Cruiser “Georgia” 171
Maury Hall, U. S. Naval Academy 187
Maury Reunited with His Family in England, 1868 203
Portrait of Maury during His Last Years at Virginia Military
Institute 220
Maury Monument in Goshen Pass 241
Destroyer U. S. S. “Maury” 246
[Illustration: TENTATIVE MODEL OF THE MAURY MONUMENT
Soon to be erected in Richmond, Virginia. The monument will be 28
feet high; diameter of globe, 9 feet; height of Maury, 7 feet (1½
life size); figures of group, life size. Through the efforts of the
Matthew Fontaine Maury Association a sum of over $60,000 was raised
for this beautiful memorial. Sculptor F. William Sievers. See page
251.]
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 partial and incomplete view of the man, while foreigners at
a distance saw the complete figure of the great scientist unobscured by
the haze of professional jealousy or political and sectional prejudice.
But there is another kind of perspective,—that produced by the
lapse of time; hence it is that we now are enabled to appreciate the
greatness of a man irrespective of the side he took in the War between
the States in those “unhappy things and battles long ago”. It is this
perspective of time that makes possible the writing of this biography
with the confidence that the time has now come when throughout our
entire country Maury’s greatness as a scientist and as a man will be
seen in its true proportions, and his fine struggle against obstacles
to attain his ideals and accomplish his purposes will serve as an
inspiration and a challenge to every American.
Whatever the obstacles were that Maury had to contend with, there was
no handicap in his ancestry, for he was distinctively well-born.
Through his father, Richard Maury, he was descended from a very
distinguished Huguenot family which came to Virginia in 1718. His
mother, Diana Minor, was of Dutch ancestry, being descended from Dudas
Minor, who received in 1665 a grant of land in Virginia from King
Charles II. The Minors intermarried with the colonial aristocracy of
the Old Dominion, and there was accordingly added to the mixed Huguenot
and Dutch ancestry of Matthew Fontaine Maury some of the best English
blood in the colonies. Thus it was that he inherited pride of family,
an inclination to scholarly pursuits, a deeply religious nature, and
the character and bearing of a gentleman.
Matthew Fontaine Maury was born, the fourth son in a large family of
five sons and four daughters, on January 14, 1806, on his father’s
farm near Fredericksburg, Virginia, and named after his paternal
great-grandfathers. There had been many migrations from Spottsylvania
and Albemarle counties to the free lands of the Old Southwest; and
when Matthew was but five years old, his father determined to attempt
to better his fortunes by following his uncle, Abram Maury, who had
already established himself on the Tennessee frontier. Practically no
details as to the incidents that occurred on this long and toilsome
trek have been preserved; but there is a tradition in the family that
all the goods and chattels were transported in wagons, and that, when
little Matthew grew tired of walking or cramped from riding in the
rough, jolting wagons, he was frequently carried on the back of one
of his sisters. Their experiences were, no doubt, similar to those of
thousands of other early pioneers who went to the Old Southwest to lay
the foundations of new commonwealths.
The travel-worn family established a new home near Franklin, Tennessee,
some eighteen miles north of Nashville. This section of the country
was then on the outskirts of the western frontier, and it was in such
an environment that young Maury spent the most formative years of his
life. As a lad, he had to take his share of the burdensome work on the
farm; and it appears from an incident long afterwards related by his
brother that he had the distaste for farm work, which is common to
boys. Their father had set them to work picking cotton, and Matthew
showed his inventiveness by devising a way of shortening their labor.
He suggested to his brother that they make short work of the cotton
picking by pulling off the cotton balls bodily and cramming them into
an old hollow hickory stump that was full of water. The scheme was a
good one so long as it was undiscovered, but after a time the watchful
eye of their father detected the boys in the act and a flogging was
the result. The lives of the children on the frontier, however, were
by no means wholly filled with toil. There was ample opportunity to
enjoy out-door sports in all seasons of the year, and indoors the Maury
family were not without resources for passing the time pleasantly and
profitably. There were traditions of culture and even of scholarship in
the family, and besides it should be remembered that the homes of the
early settlers were rarely without at least a few good books.
Maury’s father, having observed that his own father had been too
stern with his children, treated his large family with considerable
indulgence; yet he was strict as to their religious training in the
home and gathered the children together morning and night each day
to read the Psalter antiphonally. In this way Matthew became so
familiar with the Psalms of David that years afterwards he could give a
quotation and cite chapter and verse as though he had the Bible before
him. This early religious influence later colored all Maury’s thinking
and writing to a very marked degree. His mother, who was known as a
woman of great decision of character, endowed her son with this same
quality which is so essential to greatness; while her husband passed on
to Matthew much of his amiability and ingenuousness for which he was
greatly liked throughout the neighborhood.
Maury received his elementary education in an “Old Field” school,
where the seats were made of split logs with peg legs, where there
were no blackboards and but few books, and where the pupils studied
their lessons aloud. This method of study probably led to the custom of
“singing geography”, the pupils being ranged round the room to chant
geographical facts. Whether Maury was thus inducted into the mysteries
of that science which his researches were afterwards so greatly to
enrich is not known, for the only schoolbook that he makes reference
to in his letters is the famous Webster’s “Blueback Speller”, which he
says was the first book that was ever placed in his hands.
A better education than that afforded in these country elementary
schools was, however, destined for Maury. When he was in his twelfth
year, a dangerous fall from a tree so injured his back as to cause his
father to consider it unwise for the lad to continue to work on the
farm. He had already shown such aptitude for study that it was decided
to send him to Harpeth Academy, then located about two miles from
Franklin. In this school, Maury had as teachers the Reverend Doctor
Blackburn, afterwards Chaplain to Congress; James Otey, who became the
first Bishop of Tennessee; and William C. Hasbrouck, who was afterwards
a distinguished lawyer in his native state, New York. The impression
that Maury made upon these scholarly men was a very favorable and
lasting one, and he retained their warm personal friendship as long as
they lived.
It was with Dr. Blackburn that Maury began the study of Latin grammar,
through which he marched with seven league boots in only seven days;
this, of course, was a record for the school. Though he thus showed a
capacity for learning languages, both at this time and later in the
navy while on foreign stations, yet the field of science held the
greatest attraction for Maury. His ambition to become a mathematician
was aroused in a curious way. “The first man of science I ever saw in
my infant days in the West”, he said, “was a shoemaker—old Mr. Neil.
He was a mathematician; he worked out his problems with his awl on
leather, and would send home his shoes with their soles covered with
little x’s and y’s. The example of that man first awakened in my breast
the young spirit of emulation; for my earliest recollections of the
feelings of ambition are connected with the aspiration to emulate that
man in mathematics”. The ambition to know and achieve early displayed
itself in Maury, and in later life he pleasantly recalled to mind his
“Tennessee school days when the air was filled with castles”.
Such, in brief, was the life of Maury as a lad in his adopted state,—a
state which he came to love and to which he referred years afterwards,
when he had traveled extensively and become a famous man, as “the
loveliest of lands” and “the finest country I have ever seen”. Here he
was nurtured with the best the frontier life had to offer, and given
independence of mind, courage, and self-reliance; love of honor and
a chivalrous respect for woman; an unassuming modesty which bordered
on diffidence and bashfulness; a strongly religious inclination; and
a burning desire to know and to achieve. With this equipment he would
doubtless have made a name for himself if he had remained in Tennessee;
but Providence directed his steps into a broader field where he was
able to gain for himself much greater distinction,—one that was not
alone national but international in its scope.
One of the well marked characteristics of Maury’s maturity was the
breadth of his intellectual vision. His mind loved to exercise itself
with large problems, and questions of world-wide interest. This trait
in his character could not have been developed so well perhaps in
any other career as in the one he chose,—service in the navy of the
United States. In this connection, it is interesting to note that
Maury’s father wished him to study medicine and promised him financial
assistance in such an undertaking. As a physician, he doubtless would
have reached great eminence and the science of medicine would almost
certainly have received contributions from his original mind; but a
military career presented greater attractions for the lad. At one time
he considered entering West Point as a cadet, but some one returned
from there with an unfavorable report and, besides, the bare mention of
such a plan put his father in a rage; hence he decided against the army
and instead determined to enter the United States Navy.
There were very good reasons for Maury’s wishing to become a naval
officer. Indeed, all his life he had had a close personal interest
in that branch of the government service. His eldest brother, John
Minor Maury, at the age of thirteen, even before the family had left
Virginia, had become a midshipman. He then had thrilling adventures
in the South Seas, was with David Porter in the _Essex_ during the
bloody battle with the English at Valparaiso, and afterwards fought
with Macdonough in the Battle of Lake Champlain. All this was enough
to awaken the spirit of adventure and arouse the desire of emulation
in the heart of a younger brother. And though John Maury had the
misfortune, in 1824, to die of yellow fever on board his ship and be
buried at sea off Norfolk, yet Matthew clung firmly to his decision in
the face of the opposition of his family, particularly his father, to
the entrance of a second son into so hazardous a profession.
Maury secured his midshipman’s warrant with comparative ease, through
General Sam Houston, who was at that time the Representative of that
district in Congress. This appointment was gotten, however, without
his parents’ knowledge, and when it became known to his father he
expressed his disapproval of his son’s conduct in very strong terms and
determined to leave him to his own resources. But young Maury was very
resourceful and contrived to purchase for seventy-five dollars a gray
mare from his cousin Abram Maury’s overseer, which he was to sell upon
reaching his destination, and then he was to repay the money. Still
he had practically nothing for traveling expenses, but this obstacle
was removed by his teacher, Mr. Hasbrouck, who gave him thirty dollars
for assistance he had rendered in teaching the younger pupils in the
Academy.
On the day of his departure on that Sunday in the spring of 1825,
Maury’s father refused to tell him goodbye and turned his back,—it
is said, not so much in anger as in sorrow at his leaving home. No
doubt the lad’s heart was saddened by this circumstance as well as by
the parting from the rest of the family, especially from his favorite
brother Richard, only two years his senior, who had always been his
inseparable companion. But he put on a brave front, mounted his “snow
white steed”, and set forth on the long lonesome ride to Virginia,
whence he was to make his way to Washington and there embark on his new
career.
The second or third day from home at an inn in East Tennessee, the
young traveler fell in with two merchants, Read and Echols, from
Huntsville, Alabama, on their way to Baltimore to purchase goods,
and in company with these gentlemen he traveled as far as Fincastle,
Virginia. Though he greatly enjoyed their company, he was much
concerned lest they find out his financial condition, suspect his
poverty, and humiliate him by offering him money. His resources were
indeed sadly depleted on crossing over into Virginia, where his money
had to be exchanged for coin of that state at a ruinous discount of
twenty per cent, and when, after a journey of two weeks, he reached the
home of his Cousin Reuben Maury near Charlottesville, he had but fifty
cents left.
Here a special entertainment was given in his honor, and Maury had
his first experience with the society manners of the East which were
somewhat more refined than those of the Tennessee frontier. When the
negro servant passed him a saucer of ice-cream and a spoon, he very
modestly placed only a spoonful in his plate and left the remainder
to be passed to the others, thinking that it was some kind of strange
sauce. From this place he proceeded to the home of his Uncle Edward
Herndon, near Fredericksburg; and while visiting there, he met the
young girl who was some years afterwards to become his wife. She was
Ann Hull Herndon, the eldest daughter of Dabney Herndon, who was a
banker and prominent citizen of Fredericksburg. It was a case of love
at first sight with young Maury, who was completely captivated by the
blue eyes, auburn hair, and musical voice of his fair cousin; while she
in turn was very favorably impressed with this relative from the West
with his ruddy complexion which she used to say after they were married
reminded her of “David fresh from his sheep with his sling”.
[Illustration:
_From De Meissner’s “Old Naval Days,” through courtesy of Henry
Holt and Company._
U. S. S. “BRANDYWINE,” COMMANDER BIDDLE, OFF MALTA, NOVEMBER 6,
1831; AND U. S. S. “CONCORD,” CAPTAIN PERRY, IN BACKGROUND]
When he arrived at his destination in Washington, the Secretary of
the Navy allowed him fifteen cents a mile as mileage from Franklin,
Tennessee, and this fairly put Maury’s head above water financially.
After a short visit with relatives here, he went on to New York where
he had been ordered to report on board the U. S. Frigate _Brandywine_.
Here he arrived August 13, 1825, and at once entered into active
service in the profession which he had chosen. He has left no record
as to what his thoughts and feelings were during those weeks when he,
a lad from the West who had never seen a ship before, was adjusting
himself to those new and strange surroundings. But that he had made
up his mind to succeed in his chosen career, whether he liked it or
not, is evident from this sentiment which occurs more than once in his
letters: “... to the old rule with which I set out on horseback from
Tennessee in 1825, a fresh midshipman, ‘Make everything bend to your
profession’”.