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
that, when he was sailing master of the _Falmouth_, 1831–1833, he was
first made to realize how little of the nautical experience of other
sailors could be taken advantage of by one about to set out on a long
voyage. On the way down to Rio in this ship he first conceived the
idea of a wind and current chart; but he had no opportunity to make
practical investigations into the meteorology of the sea until the
year 1842, when he was placed in charge of the Depot of Charts and
Instruments.
He had been in this office but a short time when he set about examining
the old log books which had been stored away as so much rubbish by the
Navy Department. By the middle of the year 1843, these investigations
had proved so illuminating that he was able to write a paper, which was
read before the National Institute, on “Blank Charts on Board Public
Cruisers”. According to his plan, these charts were to have parallels
and meridians showing the latitude and longitude laid down upon them,
and the commanders of ships were to be requested to lay off on them the
tracks of their vessels every day, and indicate as well the time of the
year, the direction of the winds, the force and set of the currents,
and all other phenomena having a bearing on the navigation of the
seas on which they sailed. Sailing directions, Maury declared in this
address, are now not a written branch of navigation but merely a matter
of tradition among seamen. As to his contemplated chart, he boldly
asserted that short passages are not due to luck and that “this chart
proposes nothing less than to _blaze a way_ through the winds of the
sea by which the navigator may find the best paths at all seasons”.
Not having at that time made a name for himself as a scientist, Maury
thought it wise to seek the support of the National Institute, and
asked that a committee be appointed from its members to wait upon
Secretary of the Navy Upshur and invite his coöperation in authorizing
that these charts be kept on all public cruisers. Such coöperation was,
after a fashion, granted, and Maury drew up a letter of instructions
at the request of the Secretary. But as not much political capital
was to be made of it, the matter ended with the issuing of a set of
instructions to Commodore Biddle who was on the point of sailing
for China in the _Columbus_. Maury then asked permission of the
Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography to make a chart of the Atlantic
American seaboard. He was ashamed, he wrote, of the meagerness of the
contributions of the United States to the general fund of nautical
science, and called attention to the fact that even the charts used by
an American man-of-war in making her way up the Chesapeake Bay toward
Washington had to be secured from the English Admiralty, and that, if
it were not for the Nautical Almanac of England or some other nation,
absent American ships could not find their way home and those in port
could not lift their anchors and grope to sea with any certainty of
finding their way back again.
At about the same time Maury began the compilation of a chart of the
North Atlantic for the purpose of laying down upon it the tracks of
vessels in all seasons of the year, with the currents, prevailing
winds, temperature of the water, etc. At first, he had the intention
of delineating the track of each vessel on the chart but he soon saw
that it would be impossible to do so on the scale adopted (one inch
to the degree), and he then resorted to the plan of tabulating the
results only instead of marking the track. It was not until the autumn
of 1847 that his researches, which had then extended over nearly five
years, had reached the point where he could publish his first “Wind and
Current Chart of the North Atlantic”. This chart was founded entirely
upon information derived from the old discarded log books of the
Navy Department, for he had not then secured much coöperation in the
acquiring of new data. Maury compared his work in the “quarry of log
books” to that of a sculptor, the single touch of whose chisel does but
little; but finally like the completed piece of statuary the charts
speak for themselves and stand out before the compiler “eloquent with
facts which the philosopher had never dreamed were lurking near”.
Early in the year 1848 Maury issued what he called an “Abstract Log
for the Use of American Navigators”. This was devised to secure the
coöperation of navigators in gathering information for perfecting his
charts. It contained but ten pages together with some blank forms, and
was the very modest beginning of what he afterwards issued as “Sailing
Directions”, which eventually grew to the enormous size of 1257 pages
in two volumes in quarto. The purpose of the little pamphlet was to
interpret the meaning and the significance of the wind and current
chart which had recently been issued, and to furnish instructions to
navigators for the proper keeping of the abstract log on their voyages.
They were to enter in this log the latitude and longitude every day at
noon; the hourly rate of the currents expressed in knots; the variation
of the compass; the reading of the thermometer, in both air and water,
at nine o’clock each morning; the state of the barometer just before,
during, and just after a gale of wind with the changes and time of
changes in the direction of the wind during the gale; careful entries
as to the direction and force of the winds every eight hours; and other
marine phenomena such as whales, flocks of birds, rains and fogs, etc.,
etc. When properly filled out, these logs were to be sent to Maury
at the Observatory where the information would be tabulated. It was
also suggested that tightly corked bottles containing the latitude and
longitude, and the date be thrown overboard at stated times, and that
such floating bottles be picked up when seen, and the place and time be
carefully noted in the abstract log. Those who agreed to coöperate in
these various ways were to receive free of cost a copy of the “Wind and
Current Chart of the North Atlantic”.
Maury predicted confidently that, by following his directions, the
average 55 days’ voyage from New York to Rio by the old route might be
shortened by from 10 to 15 days. This prediction was fulfilled by the
barque _W. H. D. C. Wright_ of Baltimore, which early in 1848 went
from the Capes of Virginia to Rio in 35 days and returned in 40 days,
by following Maury’s directions. This created considerable interest in
the new charts, and the number of those willing to coöperate in the new
research on the sea constantly increased from year to year. Maury had
long looked forward to the prospect of no longer being compelled to
search through cartloads of manuscripts and dusty log books, kept in
years gone by without system and with little or no regard to the facts
which he wished to obtain from them, but of having as co-laborers a
thousand or more vessels every year engaged in collecting exactly the
information required so that it would come to his hands precisely in
the form in which it was desired. In this he was not to be disappointed
for by the close of the year 1848 he was able to write that his charts
were eagerly sought by navigators and that some five or six thousand
of them had been distributed during the year to American shipmasters.
By no means all of these navigators kept their part of the agreement
and sent in to Maury their abstract logs properly filled out; but
enough data kept coming in to keep his staff of helpers constantly at
work turning out his various charts. By 1851, he could write that more
than one thousand ships in all the oceans were observing for him, and
that enough material had been collected from abstract logs to make two
hundred large manuscript volumes each averaging from two thousand to
three thousand days’ observations.
These “Wind and Current Charts” included Track Charts, Trade Wind
Charts, Pilot Charts, Thermal Charts, Storm and Rain Charts, and Whale
Charts. The Track Charts showed the frequented parts of the ocean, the
general character of the weather and wind, and the force and direction
of the latter at different seasons of the year. The Trade Wind Charts
gave the limits, extent, and general characteristics of the trade wind
regions, together with their neighboring zones of calms. The Pilot
Charts showed in every square of fifteen degrees the direction of the
wind for sixteen points of the compass that would probably be found
in that square during each month of the year, the results being based
upon the number of times the wind was reported to have been from that
direction in former years. The Thermal Charts recorded the temperature
of the surface of the ocean wherever and whenever it had been observed,
the different temperatures being distinguished by colors and symbols in
such a manner that mere inspection of the chart showed the temperature
for any month. The Storm and Rain Charts demonstrated in every square
of five degrees the number of observations that had been made for each
month, the number of days in which there had been rain, a calm, fog,
lightning and thunder, or a storm and the quarter from which it had
blown. The Whale Charts, finally, showed where whales were most hunted,
in what years and months they had been most frequently found, whether
in shoals or as stragglers, and whether sperm or right whales.
Though the coöperation which Maury enjoyed was an extensive one, he was
still not satisfied, and as early as 1851 he conceived the idea of a
universal system of meteorological observations on both land and sea.
Through the advice of British scientists, he decided to confine his
system, for the time being, only to the sea, though he was afterwards
to regret such a curtailment of his original scheme. With the authority
of Secretary of the Navy William A. Graham, to whom Maury was greatly
indebted for very generous support in furthering his ambitious project,
he set to work through diplomatic representatives of foreign countries
at Washington to interest as many meteorologists as possible in the
convening of an international meteorological conference. The United
States also was asked to coöperate, through letters which Maury sent to
the various Cabinet Members, heads of the Coast Survey, the Bureau of
Engineers, and the Smithsonian Institute, and other scientists. Paris
was at first considered to be a suitable place for the meeting; but
eventually Brussels was chosen, and the following nations accepted the
invitation to send representatives: Belgium, Denmark, France, Great
Britain, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, and the United
States.
Maury, as the representative of the United States, sailed from New York
on July 23, 1853, by way of England. Upon landing at Liverpool, he was
invited to address the merchants in the City Hall on the subject of the
uniform plan of observation at sea, and the following month he spoke
to the underwriters and shipowners of London at Lloyd’s on the same
subject. These speeches produced a more cordial coöperation on the part
of the British government which had previously been rather lukewarm in
its attitude toward the undertaking.
The conference was convened at the residence of the Minister of the
Interior in Brussels on August 23, 1853, and Jacques Adolphe Lambert
Quetelet, Director of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, was made
its president. Maury was requested to direct the proceedings of the
conference, but he declined the honor. He was then asked by the
president to state the purposes of the meeting, and after his short
introductory address President Quetelet proposed that the conference
pass a vote of thanks to Maury and record their gratitude for the
“enlightened zeal and earnestness” he had displayed in the important
and useful work which formed the subject of their deliberations. This,
of course, was unanimously passed. The discussions went on daily with
the greatest harmony, until the close of the conference on September
8. The results were the adoption of an abstract log for the use of
the men-of-war of all nations and also one for all merchantmen to use
in the system of coöperative observations. Full explanatory notes for
the keeping of these logs in such a way as to cover all the phenomena
of the ocean were agreed upon, and the hope was expressed that these
abstract logs might enjoy in time of war the same immunity that was
accorded to vessels engaged in discovery or other scientific research.
The Brussels Conference was an unqualified success, and Maury was very
enthusiastic over the new chapter of Marine Meteorology which was
about to be opened in the volume of Nature. “Rarely before”, he wrote
somewhat later, “has there been such a sublime spectacle presented
to the scientific world: all nations agreeing to unite and coöperate
in carrying out one system of philosophical research with regard to
the sea. Though they may be enemies in all else, here they are to be
friends. Every ship that navigates the high seas, with these charts and
blank abstract logs on board, may henceforth be regarded as a floating
observatory, a temple of science”.[4]
Soon after the conference, Prussia, Spain, Sardinia, the free city of
Hamburg, the republic of Bremen, Chile, Austria, and Brazil, all joined
the enterprise; and the Pope established honorary flags of distinction
for the ships of the papal states, which could be awarded only to those
vessels which kept the abstract logs of the Brussels Conference.
Maury took with him on this mission to Europe his two eldest daughters
and their cousins Ellen Herndon and Ellen Maury, who were dubbed by
acclamation on the steamer the “Magpie Club”. In England the party was
invited to Wrottesley Hall near Wolverhampton, by Lord Wrottesley, then
President of the Royal and Astronomical Societies, with whom Maury had
corresponded for several years. Before returning to America, he and his
“Magpie Club” traveled in France, Holland, and Germany, and visited the
great scientist Humboldt, whose “Cosmos” had greatly influenced Maury’s
scientific ideas.
Back at home again, Maury took up his work with renewed energy, and
with the data which came in, through the greatly increased coöperation,
from all quarters and in many different languages, he revised his
charts of the North and South Atlantic, and of the North and South
Pacific, and then charted the Indian Ocean as well. Not only was
the route to Rio definitely decreased by one fourth, but also other
passages began to be shortened with the accompanying saving for all the
men and commerce that used Maury’s suggested routes. The gold rush to
California, which began in 1849, vastly increased the shipping from the
Atlantic ports of the United States to San Francisco. Time then became
a more important element in that passage than ever before, and in
1850 clipper ships were launched for this particular trade, with the
object of making the voyage as short as possible. It was, therefore,
a splendid opportunity for putting Maury’s charts to the test, and
the practical results of his new sailing directions soon displayed
themselves.
Before his charts came to be used, the average passage from New York
to San Francisco was about 180 days, but by the year 1855 the average
passage between those ports for the year round had been reduced to 133
days. Moreover, there were dozens of clipper ships which, under Maury’s
directions, made the voyage in 110 days or even less. The record was
made in 1851 by the _Flying Cloud_, which fairly flew over the passage
in 89 days and 21 hours, during one day making the extraordinary
distance of 433½ statute miles or sailing at the rate of 18 statute
miles per hour. This exploit was celebrated with great rejoicing in San
Francisco, because the inhabitants felt that they had been brought so
much nearer to their old homes in the East.
Under the circumstances it was but natural that there should be races
among the clipper ships. The route from New York to San Francisco
became the great racecourse of the ocean, fifteen thousand miles in
length. As Maury wrote, “Some of the most glorious trials of speed
and prowess that the world ever witnessed, among ships that ‘walk the
waters’, have taken place over it. Here the modern clipper ship—the
noblest work that has ever come from the hands of man—has been sent,
guided by the lights of science, to contend with the elements, to
outstrip steam, and astonish the world”.[5] There was the great race in
1851 of the _Raven_, the _Typhoon_, and the _Sea Witch_, which was won
by the first-mentioned in 105 days, though the year before this same
ship had made the run in 97 days.
Another famous race was run during the winter of 1852–1853, and the
ships which engaged in it were the _Wild Pigeon_, _John Gilpin_,
_Flying Fish_, and _Trade Wind_. These ships, as were those in the
former race, were all furnished with Maury’s charts. After a most
interesting and exciting race, the _Flying Fish_ won in just 92 days
and 4 hours, though the _John Gilpin_ was a close second, making the
passage in 93 days and 20 hours. In commenting on these results,
Maury wrote, “Here are ships sailing on different days, bound over a
trackless waste of ocean for some fifteen thousand miles or more, and
depending alone on the fickle winds of heaven, as they are called, to
waft them along; yet, like travelers on the land bound upon the same
journey, they pass and repass, fall in with and recognize each other by
the way; and what, perhaps, is still more remarkable is the fact that
these ships should each, throughout that great distance and under the
wonderful vicissitudes of climates, winds, and currents, which they
encountered, have been so skillfully navigated that, in looking back at
their management, now that what is past is before me, I do not find a
single occasion, except the one already mentioned, on which they could
have been better handled.... Am I far wrong, therefore, when I say
that the present state of our knowledge, with regard to the physical
geography of the sea, has enabled the navigator to blaze his way among
the winds and currents of the sea, and so mark his path that others,
using his signs as finger-boards, may follow in the same track?”[6]
The degree of exactness which Maury’s knowledge of the sea had reached
is best illustrated by the incident of the _San Francisco_. This ship,
bound from New York to San Francisco with a regiment of soldiers
on board, was disabled in a hurricane on the day before Christmas,
1853 while crossing the Gulf Stream about 300 miles from Sandy Hook.
Her position on the following day, and the next day after that, was
reported by passing vessels which were, however, unable to render
her assistance. Maury was then asked by the Secretary of the Navy to
calculate her position for the assistance of the two relief ships which
were to be dispatched in search of the unfortunate vessel. Although
three other ships, the _Kilby_, the _Three Bells_, and the _Antarctic_,
fell in with the wreck and rescued the remainder of her passengers,
after 179 men had been washed overboard, yet it is an astonishing fact
that Maury had so accurately guided the two searching revenue cutters
that one of them went within sight of the spot where the drifting
vessel had shortly before been found.
There was still another important passage that Maury aided materially
in shortening. This was the voyage from England to Australia and New
Zealand. He opposed the British Admiralty route which passed near
the Cape of Good Hope, and advised ships to sail 600 to 800 miles
further westward and then to continue southward until they reached the
prevailing strong westerly winds which drove the clippers onward at a
tremendous rate. He advised them, when homeward bound, to continue in
those “brave west winds” and return by way of Cape Horn. A voyage out
to Australia and home again, accordingly, encircled the globe. Whereas
by the old route it had taken about 120 days each way on the average,
by Maury’s new route the passage for American sailings was decreased
by one third and that for the British by about one fifth.
This shortening of ships’ passages amounted to a vast saving to
the commerce of the world. It was estimated that the annual saving
to British commerce in the Indian Ocean alone, from Maury’s charts
and sailing directions, amounted to $1,000,000 at least, and the
amount saved to British commerce in all seas reached the stupendous
sum of $10,000,000 annually. As to the United States, it has been
conservatively estimated that the saving for the outward voyage alone
from her Atlantic and California ports to those of South America,
Australia, China, and the East Indies amounted to $2,250,000 per annum.
For many years the scientific world rang with Maury’s praise, though
there were, of course, some detractors. In referring to these “closet
men of science” who claimed that he pushed his speculations oftentimes
beyond the limits which the facts before him would authorize a prudent
and cautious investigator to go, he wrote that the true problem with
which he had to deal was to use his opportunities so as to produce
the greatest good to the greatest numbers, and that he was willing to
be judged by the fruits of his labor. Furthermore, he announced again
and again in his “Sailing Directions” the following rule by which his
investigations had always been guided: “To keep the mind unbiased by
theories and speculations; never to have any wish that an investigation
would result in favor of this view in preference to that, and never
to attempt by premature speculation to anticipate the results of
investigation, but always to trust to the observations”.
In spite of his great achievements, Maury’s own countrymen were rather
backward about rewarding him. The University of North Carolina
conferred upon him an A.M. degree in 1847 and a LL.D. in 1852, and
Columbia University made him a Doctor of Laws in 1854. A. A. Low and
Brothers of New York named one of their clipper barques in his honor in
1855. But the most substantial reward bestowed upon him in the United
States came in 1853, when the merchants and underwriters of New York
presented him a fine silver service and a purse of $5000 in recognition
for what he had done for the commerce of that great port. Six years
later, a testimonial signed by 363 different American shipowners,
masters, and merchants was sent to him as an expression of their
“personal regard and esteem”.
The reports of the various Secretaries of the Navy from 1850 to 1855
referred in the highest terms of appreciation to the hydrographical
work which Maury was doing. Secretary Graham went so far as to write,
“Indeed, I doubt whether the triumphs of navigation and the knowledge
of the sea, achieved under your superintendence of the Observatory,
will not contribute as much to an effective naval service and to
the national fame as the brilliant trophies of our arms”. Still,
notwithstanding this official praise, Maury was kept in the rank of
lieutenant, and an attempt made in the Senate in January, 1855 to
secure an appropriation of $25,000, as “some substantial evidence of
the appreciation of the benefits he has, by his labors, conferred
upon his country”, came to nought; and a short time thereafter he was
treated with the greatest cruelty by the Navy Department which placed
him for a time in official disgrace and reduced his pay to $1200 per
annum.
Abroad, on the contrary, Maury received almost universal recognition,
and the rulers of Europe seemed to vie with each other in conferring
medals and decorations upon him. Up to the time of the outbreak of the
Civil War, he had been made a member of some 45 learned societies,
about 20 of which were in foreign countries. He was made a knight
of the Order of Dannebrog by the King of Denmark in 1856, and the
following year a knight of the Order of St. Anne by the Czar of Russia
and a commander of the Legion of Honor by the Emperor of France; while
in 1859 he had conferred upon him the Order of the Tower and Sword by
the King of Portugal. Moreover, between the years of 1854 and 1859
gold medals were presented to him by the rulers of Norway and Sweden,
Prussia, the republic of Bremen, Holland, Austria, Sardinia, and
France; and in addition a medal of honor was awarded him for his charts
at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855, and only the year before
the beginning of the Civil War the Pope sent him a set of thirteen
beautiful silver medals. There were two gold medals from Prussia;
namely, the medal designed for distinguished works of science and the
Cosmos Medal, which had been struck by the King of Prussia to honor
Humboldt upon the publication of his “Cosmos” and which was given to
Maury because of the warm personal friendship that had long existed
between the two great scientists.
Thus was Maury’s resourcefulness and perseverance in investigating the
winds and currents of the sea and in presenting the results of his
research in a practical form for the use of the mariners of the world
crowned with success; and whatever the future might hold in store for
him, he must have then realized that he had gained for himself an
entrance into that small company of the world’s most distinguished
scientists.