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 consequence, he had but twenty dollars of ready
money at the time of his marriage, all of which he gave as a fee to
Parson E. C. McGuire. In the same generous way he shared his home for a
considerable time with his brother John’s widow and her two sons.
With some leisure at his command, Maury determined to become an author,
under the encouragement of the recent appearance in the _American
Journal of Science and Arts_ of his first scientific article, “On the
Navigation of Cape Horn”. This, the first fruit of his sea experience,
described forcefully the dangers of the passage of Cape Horn, and gave
specific information concerning the winds and the peculiar rising and
falling of the barometer in those latitudes. In the same number of
this journal there appeared another article describing Maury’s “Plan
of an Instrument for Finding the True Lunar Distance”, the instrument
in question having been invented by him. With these beginnings, he
ambitiously set to work to finish a book on navigation, which he had
commenced during the last part of his recent tour of sea duty. He did
not expect to receive much direct profit from such a nautical book,
but hoped that it might be of a collateral advantage to him in making
his name known to the Navy Department and to his brother officers. As
it was the first nautical work of science ever to come from the pen of
an American naval officer, he expected to base a claim for promotion
on the merits of the book, and had hopes of being made a lieutenant of
ten years’ rank with the accompanying back pay amounting to $4,000 or
$5,000.
[Illustration:
_Courtesy of “The Journal of American History,” Vol. IV, Number 3
(1910)._
LIEUT. M. F. MAURY
From a daguerreotype of about the year 1855]
These plans of Maury’s did not fully materialize. President Jackson
was of the opinion that the young author deserved promotion for his
scientific work and reimbursement for the money which he had expended
in its publication, but the Secretary of the Navy, Mahlon Dickerson,
did not carry out the President’s wishes. The book itself, however,
was a great success on its appearance early in the year 1836, under
the title of “A New Theoretical and Practical Treatise on Navigation”.
The publishers, E. C. and J. Biddle of Philadelphia, soon had the
pleasure of printing a long list of favorable opinions of the work
from professors and distinguished officers in the navy, among which
the commendation of Nathaniel Bowditch gave Maury the greatest
satisfaction. His book very quickly took the place of Bowditch’s
“Practical Navigator” as a textbook for junior officers in the navy,
and when the Naval Academy was established at Annapolis it was used
for several years as the basis of the instruction given to midshipmen
in navigation. In the title page appeared the significant words, “Cur
Non?” (Why not?), the motto adopted by Lafayette when he espoused the
cause of the American colonies; this was in effect Maury’s answer to
any query that might be made as to why a young naval officer should
attempt the writing of a book.
Of the reviews of Maury’s work, one of the most interesting appeared
in the _Southern Literary Messenger_ of June, 1836. It was written by
Edgar Allan Poe, who was then editor of that magazine, and closed with
the following paragraph: “The spirit of literary improvement has been
awakened among the officers of our gallant navy. We are pleased to see
that science also is gaining votaries from its ranks. Hitherto how
little have they improved the golden opportunities of knowledge which
their distant voyages held forth, and how little have they enjoyed the
rich banquet which nature spreads for them in every clime they visit!
But the time is coming when, imbued with a taste for science and a
spirit of research, they will become ardent explorers of the regions in
which they sojourn. Freighted with the knowledge which observation only
can impart, and enriched with collections of objects precious to the
student of nature, their return after the perils of a distant voyage
will then be doubly joyful. The enthusiast in science will anxiously
await their coming, and add his cordial welcome to the warm greetings
of relatives and friends”. Poe, perhaps, had no idea how soon his
prophetic words were to be fulfilled,—and by the very man whose book
he had so favorably reviewed.
After making this successful entry into the field of authorship, Maury
lectured on scientific subjects in Fredericksburg and set about the
studying of mineralogy, geology, and drawing. In these studies he
made such progress as to qualify himself to become superintendent of
the United States Gold Mine near Fredericksburg. He spent the summer
of 1836 with his family at this mine where he made some important
improvements in its administration. Meanwhile, he had been promoted on
June 10, 1836 to the rank of lieutenant, and though he had been offered
a salary of $1200 as a mining engineer he decided to remain in the navy.
Maury’s interests were next directed to the Exploring Expedition to the
South Seas. The little squadron selected to make the cruise, composed
of the frigate _Macedonian_ and the brigs _Pioneer_ and _Consort_,
rendezvoused at Norfolk in the autumn of the year 1836, under the
command of Captain Thomas Ap Catesby Jones. Maury made an attempt to
secure the command of one of the smaller vessels; but he failed in
this, and had to be content with being attached to the _Macedonian_,
March 18, 1837. Secretary of the Navy Dickerson had not, from its
inception, been in favor of the expedition, which he looked upon as
a scheme by President Jackson for self-glorification. He therefore
did all that he could to block the sailing of the squadron by causing
unnecessary delays, not caring for the waste of money involved in this
procrastination. In this way the ships were kept at Norfolk until
October when they finally sailed for New York.
In September, Maury had had the good fortune to be appointed
“Astronomer” for the expedition with $1000 additional pay, and also as
assistant to the “Hydrographer”, Lieutenant James Glynn. To prepare
himself for these duties he went to Philadelphia, where in a little
observatory in Rittenhouse Square he soon familiarized himself with
the use of astronomical instruments. The expedition, however, still
delayed to set sail, and the vexatious interference with his command
so affected Captain Jones’s health as to give the Secretary of the
Navy an excuse for removing him from his position. Matters had by this
time come to such a pass that several officers declined the command
when it was offered them; namely, Captains Shubrick, Kearny, Perry, and
Gregory. Finally, in April, 1838, a junior officer, Lieutenant Charles
Wilkes, though there were eighty lieutenants above his grade, was
selected, and he accepted the appointment.
The sloops of war _Vincennes_ and _Peacock_ and two smaller vessels
were chosen instead of those originally prepared, and it became
necessary to reorganize the personnel of the expedition. Maury had
sympathized with Captain Jones in the unjust treatment which he had
received from the Secretary of the Navy, and besides he had written
that Wilkes was the only officer in the navy with whom he would not
coöperate provided that he was put in command of the enterprise. He
therefore asked to be detached from the expedition.
Maury might possibly have had the honor of commanding the exploring
expedition himself, as clearly indicated by the following letter which
he wrote years afterwards: “The expedition had been taken away from the
Secretary of the Navy and transferred to Poinsett, Secretary of War. I
was ordered to fetch the instruments to Washington and report myself to
Poinsett. He received me with open arms, took me into his bosom, and
asked me to give him the names of the officers _without regard to rank_
that _I_ thought best qualified for the expedition. I afterwards had
reason to suppose that he expected me to name myself and intended to
put me in command of it, as really I was the most important personage
in it—Hydrographer and Astronomer. But I asked myself, what right
have I to draw distinctions among brother officers? So I gave him a
list of the officers belonging to the expedition; myself, the youngest
lieutenant in the navy, at the bottom of the list. He froze up with
disgust, ordered Wilkes home, and gave him the command, and so I was
the gainer, for I preserved mine integrity”.
Maury was next assigned to the duty of surveying Southern harbors,
relative to the establishment of a navy yard in the South. In this
work he assisted Lieutenant James Glynn, in the schooner _Experiment_
and the steamboat _Engineer_, in the examination and survey of the
harbors of Beaufort and Wilmington, and the inlets Sapelo and Doboy on
the coast of Georgia. Early in the month of August, 1839, Maury was
detached from the _Engineer_ at Norfolk with leave for one month, and
he set out very soon thereafter from his home in Fredericksburg to
visit his parents in Tennessee to look after some business affairs for
his father who had become old and infirm, and also to make arrangements
for conveying them to Virginia where they were to make their home with
him.
Maury had written in vain, in February and again in August, 1839, to
F. R. Hassler of the United States Coast Survey offering his services
as head of a triangulation party. This was one of the several attempts
he made at different times to find work of such a nature as to justify
his resignation from the navy. By such small threads often hangs a
man’s destiny. If Hassler had accepted Maury’s services, his whole
future would probably have been different from what it became, for an
event was soon to happen to him which, though apparently at first most
unfortunate, was indirectly to place him on that flood tide which led
him on to fortune.
Under orders to join the brig _Consort_ at New York and continue
the surveying of Southern harbors, Maury left his father’s home in
Tennessee by stage coach to join his ship. He went by the northern
route, and near Somerset, Ohio, on a rainy night about one o’clock in
the morning, an embankment gave way and the coach was upset. Maury,
having given his seat inside to a woman with a baby in arms, was riding
on the seat with the coachman, and was the only person seriously
injured. There were twelve other passengers; Maury, the thirteenth,
had his right knee-joint transversely dislocated and the thigh-bone
longitudinally fractured.
His recovery from the injury was slow and painful. The leg was
improperly set, and at a time when the use of anesthetics was unknown
it had to be reset with great pain to the unfortunate officer. During
the three months of his confinement at the Hotel Phoenix in Somerset
he managed to keep up his spirits in spite of the suffering and
loneliness, and to break the tedium of the dull days he commenced the
study of French without the aid of either grammar or dictionary. At
last, in January, 1840, he thought himself strong enough to proceed to
New York; but it was in the midst of winter and he had to be driven in
a sleigh over the Alleghany Mountains. This occasioned considerable
delay, and when he at length arrived at his destination he found that
his ship had already sailed. He then made his way to his home in
Virginia to recuperate his health and strength under the apprehension
that his injury might be so serious as to incapacitate him for further
active service in the navy.
During the long weeks in Ohio he had been greatly troubled with these
fears and had considered gravely what he might do in the future. He
had begun then to think seriously of resorting to the pen, and after
his return home this notion “to take to books and be learned” began to
take more definite shape in his mind, though he was greatly discouraged
at his ignorance and confused by the wilderness of subjects from which
to choose. He did not, however, wish to give the impression that he
was shirking active service; so he made application on March 14, 1840
to Secretary of the Navy Paulding for any duty which he could perform
in his present condition, “service on crutches” as he expressed it.
This, of course, was not granted him, and thus relieved temporarily
from active service, he began the writing of his “Scraps from the Lucky
Bag”, a series of magazine articles which were soon to make his name
very widely known.
In the summer of 1838, Maury had written five articles for the Richmond
_Whig and Public Advertiser_ under the _nom de plume_ of “Harry Bluff,
U.S. Navy”. His feelings were at that time raw over the outcome of the
Exploring Expedition, and in these fearless, straightforward articles
he bitterly criticised the former Secretary of the Navy Dickerson for
his inefficiency and called upon his successor, Secretary Paulding, to
restore to the navy its former prestige. The appointment of Wilkes to
command the expedition was handled without gloves. “There was”, wrote
Maury, “a cunning little Jacob who had campaigned in Washington a full
term of seven years. More prodigal than Laban, you (Secretary of War,
Joel R. Poinsett) gave him, for a single term, both the Rachel and the
Leah of his heart. A junior lieutenant with scarcely enough service at
sea to make him familiar with the common routine of duty on board a
man-of-war, and with one or two short interruptions, a sinecurist on
shore for the last fifteen years, he was lifted over the heads of many
laborious and meritorious officers, and placed by you in the command of
the Exploring Expedition in violation of law”.
Maury wrote, in December of the same year, seven more articles for
this newspaper, hiding his identity by inscribing them “From Will
Watch to his old messmate Harry Bluff”. In these he went further still
into details as to the inefficiency of the administration of the navy,
dealing especially with the waste connected with the building and
repairing of ships, the need for a system of rules and regulations
in the navy, and the advisability of establishing a naval school. As
to the latter, he wrote, “There is not, in America, a naval school
that deserves the name, or that pretends to teach more than the mere
rudiments of navigation.... Why are not steps taken to have our
officers educated and fitted for this high responsibility? The idea of
a naval academy has been ridiculed. This may be the fault of Congress;
I will not lay the censure at the wrong door—but the Department has
been equally inattentive to providing the young officers with the
proper means of learning even practical seamanship”.
These “Harry Bluff” and “Will Watch” articles, together with one other
on “Navy Matters” by “Brandywine” which also appeared in the _Whig_ at
this time and reveals Maury’s authorship through its style, contained
the germs of the ideas which he more fully developed in his “Scraps
from the Lucky Bag”. This series of articles on the need of reform
in the conduct of naval affairs appeared in the _Southern Literary
Messenger_ during the years 1840 and 1841, under Maury’s former
pseudonym of “Harry Bluff”. The navy was then in a condition of dry
rot, and the time was ripe for some courageous person to awaken the
country to a realization of the true state of affairs and to point out
the reforms that were needed. Maury’s former experience in the naval
service and his present enforced leisure led him to take up the task,
which he performed with a brilliancy and a degree of success that was
far beyond even his own expectation and gave him a national reputation.
His choice of the _Messenger_ as the medium for conveying to the public
his ideas on maritime subjects had been made the previous year when
there was published in it an unsigned article, entitled “A Scheme for
Rebuilding Southern Commerce: Direct Trade with the South”. In this he
first emphasized the importance of the Great Circle route for steamers
between English and American ports and pointed out how the _Great
Western_ on her first voyage might have saved 260 miles by using such a
route and thus have cut down the time of her passage by about one whole
day. Maury claimed afterwards that after the appearance of his article
a work on navigation was published in England and that one of its chief
recommendations was its chapter on “great circle sailing”. Its author
was rewarded with a prize from the Royal Geographical Society, and
the work itself was extensively patronized by the Board of Admiralty,
a copy of which they ordered to be supplied to each of the British
men-of-war in commission.
The significance of the title, “Scraps from the Lucky Bag”, is
indicated by the following introductory parody, which enumerates the
contents of a lucky bag on shipboard:
“Shoe of middy and waister’s sock,
Wing of soldier and idler’s frock,
Purser’s slops and topman’s hat,
Boatswain’s call and colt and cat,
Belt that on the berth-deck lay,
In the Lucky Bag find their way;
Gaiter, stock, and red pompoon,
Sailor’s pan, his pot and spoon,
Shirt of cook and trowser’s duck,
Kid and can and ‘doctor’s truck’,
And all that’s lost and found on board
In the Lucky Bag’s always stored.”
It was a well-chosen and apt title, which enabled Maury to treat in
the same article of various matters more or less unrelated. Among the
various topics that he touched upon was, first, the desirability of
having grades in the navy higher than those of captain, to correspond
with those in foreign navies. He also declared that there should be
a larger force on the coast of Africa to put down the traffic in
slaves, and more warships in the Pacific to support American commerce
with China and to protect American fishermen on the whaling grounds.
Thus prophetically did he portray the future of American trade on
that ocean: “If you have a map of the world at hand, turn to it and,
placing your finger at the mouth of the Columbia River, consider its
geographical position and the commercial advantages which, at some day
not far distant, that point will possess. To the south, in one unbroken
line, lie several thousand miles of coast indented with rich markets
of Spanish America—to the west, Asiatic Russia and China are close at
hand—between the south and west are New Holland and Polynesia; and
within good marketable distance are all the groups and clusters of
islands that stud the ocean, from Cape Horn to the Cape of Good Hope,
from Asia to America. Picture to yourself civilization striding the
Rocky Mountains, and smiling down upon the vast and fruitful regions
beyond, and calculate, if you can, the important and future greatness
of that point to a commercial and enterprising people. Yet the first
line in the hydrography of such a point remains to be run. It has been
more than twenty years since an American man-of-war so much as looked
into the mouth of the Columbia River. Upon what more important service
could a small force be dispatched than to survey and bring home correct
charts of that river and its vicinity?”
He then pointed out the unpreparedness of the country for war, and
dwelt upon how the United States was forced weakly to acquiesce in the
blockading of Mexico and the La Plata by France, and make no protest at
the strengthening of her forts on the Great Lakes by England who was
thus violating her treaty with this government. The navy should, he
declared, experiment with steam vessels of war, and Pensacola and some
point on the coast of Georgia or the eastern coast of Florida should be
fortified. Turning then to personnel, he continued: “It takes something
more than spars and guns, and walls of wood to constitute a navy. These
are only the body—the arms and legs without the thews and sinews.
It requires the muscle of the brawny seaman, and the spirit of the
well-trained officer to impart life and motion to such a body, to give
vigor and energy to the whole system”.
A real system of education for the navy should be devised. The army,
he said, had a Military Academy at West Point, “affording the most
useful and practical education to be obtained in the country”; while
the navy was forced to make out with inefficient schoolmasters on
board ship, and the midshipmen secured only a practical knowledge of
seamanship, the manipulation of the sextant, a few rules by rote from
Bowditch’s “Epitome of Navigation”, and a knowledge of right-angled
plane trigonometry. Maury claimed that a broader training was needed,
and suggested the following subjects as requisite for study: drawing
and naval architecture, gunnery and pyrotechny, chemistry and natural
history, astronomy, mathematics, natural philosophy, navigation,
tactics and discipline, gymnastics, international and maritime law, and
languages (one of French, Spanish, or German and “that most difficult,
arbitrary, and careful of all languages, the English”). These subjects
were to be covered in a four years’ course, with a two months’ cruise
each year, sometimes to foreign waters; while two years at sea after
graduation and an examination at the end of that period of service were
to be required before a commission in the navy was to be awarded.
At first, Maury proposed merely a school-ship; but a little later
after his articles had been received with such favor by the public
he declared that his advocacy of a school-ship had been made solely
on the grounds of expediency and that he would hail with delight the
establishment of a school for the navy anywhere, even on the top of
the Rocky Mountains. He thereupon suggested Memphis, Tennessee as
a suitable place for the school, on the grounds that the East had
the Military Academy and the West should have the naval school, and
besides that this would be a favorable place for experimenting on
steam vessels on the Mississippi River. Though Maury was by no means
the first to suggest the need for such an institution, yet no other
person contributed so much as he did towards the education of public
opinion and the preparation for the eventual establishment of the
Naval Academy. It is with justice, therefore, that he has often been
referred to as the father of this famous institution.
Continuing his discussion of the needs of the navy as to personnel,
Maury recommended a reorganization and standardization of the number
of officers in the various grades and a system of promotion that would
keep alive the spirit and ambition of the officers. Surplus officers,
he thought, might go into the merchant marine and constitute a naval
reserve; while the revenue service should be taken over by the regular
navy.
Maury then turned to the question of material and devoted a great
deal of attention to the graft and inefficiency connected with the
building and repairing of ships. “Honorable legislators”, he wrote,
“are warned that the evils are deeply seated in the system itself, and
are not to be removed by merely the plucking of a leaf, or the lopping
off of a limb: the axe must be laid at the root—for nothing short of
thorough and complete reorganization will do”. His attack was directed
particularly against the Board of Navy Commissioners; and when this
board attempted a reply, he answered with the most devastating article
of the whole series, in which he piled up figures, and multiplied
instances of graft and ruinous waste. As a summary, he wrote, “Vessels
are built at twice the sum they ought to cost—they are repaired at
twice as much as it takes to build—the labor to repair costs three
times as much as the labor to construct—the same articles for one ship
cost four or five times as much as their duplicates for another—it
costs twice as much to _repair_ ordnance and stores for a ship as it
takes to buy them”. Maury advocated in place of this board a bureau
system with divided responsibility. The Secretary of the Navy, he
thought, should have an assistant under-secretary, who should be a
post captain in the navy and have general oversight over the various
bureaus. Then promotions would be taken out of politics, and the old
saying that “a cruise of a few months in Washington tells more than
a three years’ cruise at sea in an officer’s favor” would lose its
significance.
In his attempt to improve conditions in the naval service, Maury had
the sympathy of a large number of his brother officers, some of whom
gave practical expression to their feeling by clubbing together and
having large editions of the “Scraps from the Lucky Bag” printed for
free distribution. In the month of July, 1841 there appeared a sketch
of Maury in the _Southern Literary Messenger_, in which his name was
for the first time connected with the authorship of the articles. It
was written by a “Brother Officer”, who said that the “Scraps from the
Lucky Bag” had produced “an enthusiasm which has not subsided and will
not subside until the whole navy is reorganized”. Such indeed was the
outcome. Congress took up the matter, and many of Maury’s suggested
reforms were at once instituted, while practically everything that he
contended for was eventually adopted for the naval service. So famous
did Maury become through the publication of these articles that the
President was urged to place him at the head of the Navy Department;
and at one time President Tyler had actually made up his mind to make
him his Secretary of the Navy in spite of the fact that he was then but
a lieutenant.
In November, 1841, Maury made another request for active service.
In order that his family and friends might not defeat his purpose,
he went to Richmond and from there wrote to Secretary of the Navy
George E. Badger, suggesting that he was able to perform any of the
lighter duties at sea which did not call for much bodily exercise, and
requesting that he be appointed flag-lieutenant in the Pacific Squadron
under Commodore Jones, who had signified a desire to have him in this
post. His purpose, however, was thwarted by Judge John T. Lomax, a warm
personal friend, who wrote to the Secretary and enclosed a certificate
from three of the best physicians of Fredericksburg to the effect that
Maury was in no condition for life on board ship; and as a consequence
he was retained on the list of those “waiting orders”.
After the completion of his “Scraps from the Lucky Bag”, Maury
continued to write for the _Southern Literary Messenger_; he rendered
editorial service to Mr. White, the owner of the magazine, during the
year 1842, and was virtually the editor during the first eight months
of 1843 after White’s death. He contributed also to the _Army and Navy
Chronicle_ and the _Southern Quarterly Review_ of Charleston.
His “Letters to Clay” in the _Messenger_ under the pseudonym of “Union
Jack” strongly advocated the establishment of a national dockyard at
Memphis, government subsidies for the building of steam packets as
England and France were doing, a national steamboat canal from the
upper Mississippi River to the Lakes for defense against Canada in
case of war with Great Britain, a strong naval establishment at some
place on the Atlantic seaboard south of Norfolk, and the making of
Pensacola a veritable “Toulon on the Mediterranean”. The following
year, 1842, he took up in the same journal the question of the right of
Great Britain to visit and search American ships in the “suspicious”
latitudes off Africa in the endeavor to suppress the slave trade. He
was against according this right to England because of the temptation
to use the power involved in an arbitrary manner greatly to the injury
of American commerce, and he was of the opinion that it was merely
an attempt, under the pretext of supporting the “Christian League”
or Quintuple Alliance, to revive the old claim of England’s right to
violate sailors’ rights and the freedom of the seas, principles fought
for in the War of 1812. He referred, in passing, to the tense feeling
against Great Britain on account of the Maine Boundary dispute, and the
desire, on the part of many, even for war. “On the contrary”, he wrote,
“I should view a war between the United States and Great Britain as one
of the greatest calamities, except a scourge direct from the hand of
God, that could befall my country”. But he added, “In the navy, there
is but one sentiment and one feeling on this subject; it is, avert war,
honorably if you can; if not, let it come: right or wrong, the stars
and stripes shall not be disgraced on the ocean”.
He too was opposed to the slave trade, and thought that the United
States would be glad to coöperate with Great Britain and furnish
warships for the purpose; but he doubted the sincerity of England,
and referred pointedly to the “hosts of murdered Chinese who prefer
instant death at the mouth of British cannon to the slow poison of
a British drug”,—the opium that was at that time being forced upon
them by the British government. His conclusion was this: “When the
British government shall cease to sell its captured slaves—when it
shall abandon its intrigues for the right of search which has done the
Africans so much more harm than good—and shall advocate some such
practical plan as this (coöperation) for the suppression of the slave
trade, then and not till then will we give the ‘old country’ credit for
motives of humanity and a sincere desire to succor the slave”.
These were the last articles that Maury wrote before he was appointed
to an office of great potential importance, which was to afford the
appropriate place for the complete flowering of his peculiar genius.
This appointment was given to him largely because of his writings;
namely, his “New Theoretical and Practical Treatise on Navigation”,
“Scraps from the Lucky Bag”, and other magazine articles. It might be
said, therefore, that though he had been faithful in the performance
of all the duties of his profession and, courageous as he was, would
almost certainly have distinguished himself in warfare, yet up to this
point in his career the pen, as an instrument for acquiring fame, had
indeed been mightier than the sword.