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 had not been previously recognized. In July, 1843
he gave an address before the President, the Corps Diplomatique, and
important government officials on “The Gulf Stream and Its Causes”,
which was reread with certain variations before several different
learned societies during the following year. He continued to write
such scientific papers on topics bearing on oceanography, while he
was engaged in astronomical work and the preparation of his wind
and current charts, and these papers, after being delivered before
scientific societies, were published by him in the astronomical
and meteorological publications of his office. Of particular note
were those which appeared in the different editions of his “Sailing
Directions” under such titles as “The Influence of the Gulf Stream
on the Trade of Charleston”, “The Currents of the Sea”, “On the
Saltness of the Sea”, “On the General Circulation of the Atmosphere”,
“Red Fogs and Sea Dust”, “On the Probable Relation between Magnetism
and the Circulation of the Atmosphere”, “Of Clouds and Equatorial
Cloud Rings”, “On the Geological Agency of the Winds”, and “Deep Sea
Soundings”.
[Illustration:
_Copy of engraving furnished by Captain E. T. Pollock, U. S. N.
Superintendent Naval Observatory._
COPY OF AN ENGRAVING OF MAURY WHICH HANGS IN THE SUPERINTENDENT’S
OFFICE AT THE UNITED STATES NAVAL OBSERVATORY]
The last-mentioned paper was made possible by the coöperation afforded
by the government in authorizing in 1849 the Secretary of the Navy to
detail three suitable vessels to assist in Maury’s wind and current
investigations and to order all ships of the navy to coöperate in so
far as it was compatible with the public interest. Maury had long had
a desire to explore the bottom of the ocean, and he now saw to it
that these ships especially detailed to help him were equipped and
thoroughly instructed for making soundings. The first attempts were
made by the schooner _Taney_, under the command of Lieutenant J. C.
Walsh, in the autumn of 1849. But her work was of negligible value,
as she succeeded only in losing some 5700 fathoms of line as well
as her deep-sea sounding apparatus, and then proved so unseaworthy
that she had to be condemned and sent back home under escort. Later,
however, the results secured particularly by Captain Charles T. Platt
in the sloop of war _Albany_ and by Lieutenants S. P. Lee and O. H.
Berryman in the brig _Dolphin_ were of great importance. So extensive
was the data regarding soundings at Maury’s command by the close of
the year 1853 that he was able to publish in the sixth edition of his
“Sailing Directions” (1854) ninety pages of matter under the heading of
“Physical Geography of the Sea”.
This edition of the “Sailing Directions” was brought out by E. C. and
J. Biddle of Philadelphia, and when Maury’s nephew, Dabney Maury,
went to see the publishers about some question connected with its
publication, one of the firm called his attention to the fact that
Maury’s annual report contained materials for a most interesting
and valuable book. He warned him that, unless the results of his
investigations were thus guarded by a copyright, he would have the
chagrin of seeing “some Yankee bookmaker steal his thunder and reap
a fortune from it”. By the next mail Maury was advised of this. He
at once became interested in the undertaking and, with the advice of
the Biddles, arrangements were made with Harpers for the publication
of such a book. It was begun in the spring of 1854, and finished and
ready for the publishers by June 20 of the same year. Maury was of the
opinion that it was to be his “_great_ work”, and time certainly proved
that he had not overestimated its importance.
The title of the book was taken from one of the chapter headings in
the sixth edition of his “Sailing Directions”, and was originally
suggested to Maury by Humboldt, who wrote that Maury’s investigations
had produced an amount of useful information sufficient, in his
opinion, to constitute a new department of science which he called the
Physical Geography of the Seas. The first edition, published early
in the year 1855, contained only 274 pages, and was dedicated “as a
token of friendship and a tribute to worth” to George Manning of New
York who had been of great assistance to Maury in the distribution of
the wind and current charts. In 1861, the eighth and last American
edition of 474 pages appeared, and at about the same time an English
edition was published by Sampson Low, Son and Company in London. This
American edition was dedicated to William C. Hasbrouck of Newburgh,
New York “as a token of the friendship and esteem, from boyhood till
now, of his former pupil”; while the English edition was inscribed
to Lord Wrottesley. The book ran to as many as nineteen editions in
England, where it bore the somewhat fuller title of “Physical Geography
of the Sea and Its Meteorology”. It has been translated into Dutch,
German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Norwegian, and has been used as a
textbook in several naval schools on the Continent.
As to the contents and general scope of his book, Maury wrote in
the introduction, “Under this term will be included a philosophical
account of the winds and currents of the sea; of the circulation of
the atmosphere and ocean; of the temperature and depth of the sea; of
the wonders that are hidden in its depths; and of the phenomena that
display themselves at its surface. In short, I shall treat of the
economy of the sea and its adaptations—of its salts, its waters, its
climates, and its inhabitants, and of whatever there may be of general
interest in its commercial uses or industrial pursuits, for all such
things pertain to its Physical Geography”. It contained also a number
of illustrative plates, among which was the first bathymetric map ever
made of the North Atlantic Ocean, with contour-lines drawn in at 1000,
2000, 3000, and 4000 fathoms.
Some idea of the nature of the book and of Maury’s peculiar style can
be best secured by the consideration of some selections taken from
it here and there. Those quoted below are, of course, of the nature
of “purple patches”, for it must not be supposed that there are no
dry and uninteresting passages in the book; but they are fairly
representative and will probably serve the purpose intended. Maury was
the first scientist to make a careful study of the Gulf Stream, and
the first chapter of his “Physical Geography of the Sea” is devoted
to this mighty ocean current. The reader’s interest is gained and
his imagination is excited at once by these opening sentences: “There
is a river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it never fails, and
in the mightiest floods it never overflows. Its banks and its bottom
are of cold water, while its current is of warm. The Gulf of Mexico
is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Seas. It is the Gulf
Stream. There is in the world no other such majestic flow of waters.
Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi or the Amazon, and its
volume more than a thousand times greater”.
In the chapter on the “Influence of the Gulf Stream upon Climates” is
the following striking passage on whales and other animals of the sea:
“Now, the Western Islands is the great place of resort for whales: and
at first there is something curious to us in the idea that the Gulf
of Mexico is the harvest-field, and the Gulf Stream the gleaner which
collects the fruitage planted there, and conveys it thousands of miles
off to the hungry whale at sea. But how perfectly in unison is it with
the kind and providential care of that great and good Being which feeds
the young ravens when they cry, and caters for the sparrow....
“The inhabitants of the ocean are as much the creatures of climate as
are those of the dry land; for the same Almighty hand, which decked
the lily and cares for the sparrow, fashioned also the pearl and feeds
the great whale, and adapted each to the physical conditions by which
His providence has surrounded it. Whether of the land or the sea, the
inhabitants are all His creatures, subjects of His laws, and agents of
His economy. The sea, therefore, we may safely infer, has its offices
and duties to perform; so, may we infer, have its currents, and so,
too, its inhabitants; consequently, he who undertakes to study its
phenomena must cease to regard it as a waste of waters. He must look
upon it as a part of that exquisite machinery by which the harmonies
of nature are preserved, and then he will begin to perceive the
developments of order and the evidences of design; these make it a most
beautiful and interesting subject for contemplation”.
This idea of divine order and design occurs again and again in the book
like the motive in a piece of music; in fact, Maury, though he did not
formally enter the church until late in life, was a very religious
man and well read in the Bible, quotations from which appear in his
writings by the dozen. He had very definite ideas about the relation
between science and the Bible, and declared that it was his rule never
to forget who was the Author of the great volume which Nature spreads
out before men, and always to remember that the same Being was the
author of the book which revelation holds forth for contemplation. It
was his opinion that, though the works were entirely different, their
records were equally true, and that when they bear upon the same point,
as they occasionally do, it would be impossible for them to contradict
each other. If the two cannot be reconciled, the fault therefore is in
man’s weakness and blindness in interpreting them aright.
To return to the “Physical Geography of the Sea”, the chapter on the
atmosphere contains many noteworthy passages such as the following:
“... The atmosphere is something more than a shoreless ocean, at the
bottom of which he (man) creeps along. It is an envelope or covering
for the dispersion of light and heat over the surface of the earth;
it is a sewer into which, with every breath we draw, we cast vast
quantities of dead animal matter; it is a laboratory for purification,
in which that matter is recompounded, and wrought again into wholesome
and healthful shapes; it is a machine for pumping up all the rivers
from the sea, and conveying the waters from their fountains on the
ocean to their sources in the mountains; it is an inexhaustible
magazine, marvellously adapted for many benign and beneficent
purposes.... To evaporate water enough annually from the ocean to cover
the earth, on the average, five feet with rain; to transport it from
one zone to another; and to precipitate it in the right places, at
suitable times, and in the proportions due, is one of the offices of
the grand atmospheric machine. This water is evaporated principally
from the torrid zone. Supposing it all to come thence, we shall have,
encircling the earth, a belt of ocean three thousand miles in breadth,
from which this atmosphere evaporates a layer of water annually sixteen
feet in depth. And to hoist up as high as the clouds, and lower again
all the water in a lake sixteen feet deep, and three thousand miles
broad, and twenty-four thousand long, is the yearly business of this
invisible machinery. What a powerful engine is the atmosphere! and how
nicely adjusted must be all the cogs, and wheels, and springs, and
_compensations_ of this exquisite piece of machinery, that it never
wears out nor breaks down, nor fails to do its work at the right time,
and in the right way”.
One other selection, from the chapter on “The Salts of the Sea”, will
be sufficient as illustrative material. “Take for example”, he writes,
“the coral islands, reefs, beds, and atolls, with which the Pacific
Ocean is studded and garnished. They were built up of materials which
a certain kind of insect quarried from the sea water. The currents of
the sea ministered to this little insect—they were its _hod carriers_.
When fresh supplies of solid matter were wanted for the coral rock upon
which the foundations of the Polynesian Islands were laid, those hod
carriers brought them in unfailing streams of sea water, loaded with
food and building materials for the coralline. The obedient currents
thread the widest and deepest seas. They never fail to come at the
right time, nor refuse to go; for, unless the currents of the sea
were employed to carry off from this insect the waters that have been
emptied by it of their lime, and to bring to it others charged with
more, it is evident the little creature would have perished for want
of food long before its task was half completed. But for currents, it
would have been impaled in a nook of the very drop of water in which
it was spawned; for it would soon have secreted the lime contained in
this drop of water, and then, without the ministering aid of currents
to bring it more, it would have perished for the want of food for
itself and materials for its edifice; and thus, but for the benign
currents which took this exhausted water away, there we perceive this
emptied drop would have remained, not only as the grave of the little
architect, but as a monument in attestation of the shocking monstrosity
that there had been a failure in the sublime system of terrestrial
adaptations—that the sea had not been adapted by its Creator to the
well-being of all its inhabitants. Now we do know that its adaptations
are suited to all the wants of every one of its inhabitants—to the
wants of the coral insect as well as to those of the whale. Hence
we say _we know_ that the sea has its system of circulation, for it
transports materials for the coral rock from one part of the world to
another; its currents receive them from the rivers, and hand them over
to the little mason for the structure of the most stupendous works of
solid masonry that man has ever seen—the coral islands of the sea”.
The contemporary reviews of Maury’s “Physical Geography of the Sea”
gave unqualified praise to his style. The _Revue des Deux Mondes_
declared, “Often indeed his powerful imagination makes of Maury a
veritable poet, and his descriptions recall involuntarily those
stories of the ‘Thousand and One Nights’, which charmed our childhood,
where Gulnare pictures for her husband marvellously the mysterious
realms of the profundities under the sea”. Humboldt considered it
an epoch-making book, and the French scientist Jomard congratulated
Maury upon the accomplishment of a “work so difficult, so useful,
so laborious”, which he regarded as a true present to physicists,
geographers, and navigators as well as to the commerce of all nations.
The _Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine_ joined in the hymn of praise with
the opinion that “the good that Maury has done, in awakening the powers
of observation of the officers of the Royal and mercantile navies of
England and America is incalculable”, and added that such researches
were exercising the most beneficial effect in improving and elevating
the minds of seamen everywhere.
Some of Maury’s theories, however, were early questioned, especially
the one regarding the causes of ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream.
He contended that they were set in motion by differences in specific
gravity of the water in different places as caused by a disparity in
temperature or in saltness. Sir John Herschel had considered that the
currents were due entirely to the Trade Winds; and C. Wyville Thomson,
who thought that Maury’s theory was ambiguous, was an adherent to the
Herschel theory, though his colleague Carpenter was of a different
opinion still. “It is now known, however,” writes Sir Willam A.
Herdman,[7] “that the Gulf Stream is not an independent phenomenon, but
is a part of the general system of surface circulation of the ocean,
a system in which the currents, diverted to the east, as a result of
the rotation of the earth in their course northwards from the equator,
flow clockwise in the North Atlantic around a central, relatively calm
area, the Sargasso Sea, in which seaweeds and other floating objects
accumulate”.
When one considers how science develops, one theory changing or
giving place entirely to another as new and wider research is made,
such criticisms as those above do not lessen at all the estimation of
Maury’s greatness as a pioneer scientist in a comparatively new field
of investigation, nor do they at all rob him of the right to be called
the world’s first great oceanographer. This is the opinion of a recent
authority on the science of the sea, who writes, “Marine meteorology
may be said to date from the time of M. F. Maury, U. S. Navy, whose
‘Physical Geography of the Sea’, though out of date as to facts and
somewhat fantastic as to theories, remains a model book of popular
science, written by a man who was possessed of all the knowledge of his
time, and afire with the enthusiasm of research”.[8]
Maury’s researches in oceanography led to his connection with one
of the most romantic and far-reaching scientific achievements of the
century, the laying of the first Atlantic telegraph cable. Mention
has already been made of the deep-sea soundings undertaken, under his
direction, by American naval officers during the years 1849–1853. With
the data furnished by these officers and by some others who were not
engaged solely in sounding operations, Maury was enabled in the autumn
of 1852 to construct an orographic map of the North Atlantic Ocean and
to give a profile representing a vertical section of its bottom between
America and Europe near the parallel of 39° north latitude. This showed
the existence of what he called “the telegraphic plateau”.
Up to this time no specimens of deep-sea ooze had been brought up
from the bottom, and each sounding involved the loss of all the twine
used as well as the cannon ball attached to it; and besides there was
some uncertainty each time as to whether the bottom had really been
reached. Fortunately, Lieutenant John Mercer Brooke, who was then at
the Observatory, invented a simple but effective contrivance known
as “Brooke’s deep-sea sounding apparatus”, which was well adapted to
Maury’s needs. The instrument was used by Lieutenant Berryman in the
_Dolphin_ during the year 1853 with great success, and the specimens
which he obtained from the bottom were forwarded by Maury to Professor
Bailey of West Point, for examination under the microscope. Upon
examination the specimens were found not to contain a particle of sand
or gravel mixed with them, but to be mites of sea-shells as perfect and
unworn as when they were alive. This suggested to Maury the idea that
there were no abrading forces at play upon the bottom of the deep sea,
and that, if an electric cord were ever laid down upon the telegraphic
plateau, there it would remain without anything to chafe or wear it
except alone the tooth of time.
Accordingly, when in February, 1854 the projectors of the Atlantic
Telegraph inquired of Maury as to the practicability of submerging the
cable, he was able to reply as follows: “From Newfoundland to Ireland
the distance between the nearest points is about sixteen hundred miles,
and the bottom of the sea between the two places is a plateau, which
seems to have been placed there especially for the purpose of holding
the wires of a submarine telegraph and of keeping them out of harm’s
way. It is neither too deep nor too shallow; yet it is so deep that
the wires, being once landed, will remain forever beyond the reach
of vessels’ anchors, icebergs, and drift of any kind, and so shallow
that the wires may be readily lodged upon the bottom. The depth of
this plateau is quite regular, gradually increasing from the shores
of Newfoundland to the depth of from fifteen hundred to two thousand
fathoms as you approach the other side. Whether it be better to lead
the wires from Newfoundland or Labrador is not now the question; nor
do I pretend to consider the question as to the possibility of finding
a time calm enough, the sea smooth enough, a wire long enough, and a
ship big enough to carry and lay a coil of wire 1600 miles in length.
I simply address myself at this time to the question in so far as the
bottom of the sea is concerned; and as for that, the greatest practical
difficulty will, I apprehend, be found after reaching soundings at
either end of the line, and not in the deep-sea. A wire laid across
from either of the above-mentioned places on this side would pass to
the north of the Grand Banks and rest on that beautiful plateau to
which I have alluded, and where the water of the sea appears to be as
quiet and as completely at rest as it is at the bottom of a mill-pond.
Therefore, so far as the bottom of the deep-sea between Newfoundland
or the mouth of the St. Lawrence and Ireland is concerned, the
practicability of a submarine telegraph across the Atlantic is proved”.
Maury first began in November, 1853 to correspond with Cyrus W. Field,
one of the prime movers in the enterprise, and soon thereafter he
met him personally. In the following year, Field invited Maury to
become financially connected with the submarine telegraph, but this
was declined on the grounds that he could not then be a disinterested
adviser of the company. Field came to Maury often, sometimes every day
for weeks at a time, to consult as to the size and material for the
cable, which according to Field’s first estimate was large enough,
Maury playfully said, for the young whales to amuse themselves romping
over it. Maury also devised a plan for making, coiling, and laying down
the cable; and when somewhat later Field wrote asking on behalf of the
company in regard to the best route and time for laying it, Maury with
the help of his assistants consulted the results of 260,000 days of
observations at sea and replied that the most propitious time for their
undertaking would be either the last of July or the first of August,
and that the steamer with the western end of the telegraphic cord on
board would be less liable than the other to encounter a gale.
Field greatly appreciated Maury’s advice, and invited him and his
wife and two daughters to go on an excursion in the summer of 1855
to witness the laying of that part of the cable between Newfoundland
and Cape Breton. He also gave permission that the National Observatory
should be the first to use the telegraph to determine longitude across
the Atlantic. In giving this assurance, Field wrote of the great help
which Maury was rendering in “illuminating the path for the lightning”.
In the year 1856, Lieutenant Berryman in the _Arctic_ made soundings
from St. Johns, Newfoundland to Queenstown, Ireland, both on the
outward and homeward passages. But these soundings were very carelessly
made, and finally had to be declared worthless by Maury. In the
summer of the following year Lieutenant Dayman, Royal Navy went over
the same course in the _Cyclops_ and made satisfactory soundings,
which confirmed Maury’s earlier statements as to the existence of the
telegraphic plateau.
The company met with many discouragements in the laying of the cable.
An unsuccessful attempt was made in the summer of 1857, and three
other failures followed the next year. But perseverance finally
had its reward; the U. S. Steamer _Niagara_ and H. B. M. Steamer
_Agamemnon_, after having met in mid-ocean and joined cables, set out
for opposite shores where they arrived at Trinity Bay and Valentia
Harbor, respectively, about the fifth of August, 1858. There was great
rejoicing on both sides of the Atlantic, and a great banquet was
given in Field’s honor by the city of New York at the Metropolitan
Hotel on September 2, 1858. In his address on that occasion, Field
referred to the many to whom he was indebted and mentioned “those
never-to-be-forgotten philosophers Lieutenant Maury, Professor Morse,
Professor Faraday, Professor Bache, and Professor W. Thomson, who have
rendered more efficient aid without receiving any compensation”.[9]
In October of the same year, the telegraph ceased to operate because
of faulty insulation. It appears that the company had not carefully
followed Maury’s advice as to the size of the cable, and he had not
himself been sanguine of success. After the failure, he contended
that all that was needed was a cable heavy enough to sink with its
own weight, and that there was no need for the iron wire which was
wound round the gutta-percha that would itself be impervious to decay,
that the strain of weight was all on the inner core of copper and had
thus caused the trouble, that the iron wire on the outside might have
interfered with the electric current, and that one large conducting
wire instead of the seven threads woven together would have been
better. But he added that he had no doubt as to the ultimate success
of a telegraph across the Atlantic. Because of the Civil War, however,
this was not to be accomplished until July, 1866; and as will be seen
later, circumstances were then such as to prevent Maury from having any
part in the final successful culmination of the project to which he had
given so much thought and valuable assistance.
Maury’s researches in the science of the sea could not, perhaps,
have been so fruitful in practical achievements, had there not been
at this time such a widespread desire to learn more about the ocean.
In America, it was a veritable age of geographical investigation and
discovery. In addition to the Exploring Expedition under Wilkes,
which spent three years and ten months in exploring the islands of the
Pacific and established the fact of the existence of the Antarctic
continent, there were many others of the same nature. Lieutenant
William Francis Lynch, in 1847–1848, led an expedition which surveyed
the Dead Sea; in 1850–1851, Lieutenant Edward J. De Haven commanded a
squadron which went into the Arctic in search of Sir John Franklin,
and though unsuccessful in finding the English explorer, he made
important scientific discoveries; Commander Cadwalader Ringgold, during
1853–1854, and then Commander John Rodgers, in the following years
1855–1856, explored and surveyed Bering Strait, the North Pacific
Ocean, and the China Seas; and in 1853, Dr. Elisha K. Kane, U. S.
Navy led another expedition into the Arctic regions in search of
Franklin and off Greenland reached a stretch of water which he thought
confirmed Maury’s theory as to an open polar sea. Between 1848 and
1852, Lieutenant John P. Gilliss conducted an astronomical expedition
to Chile, Lieutenant Archibald McRae traversed the Pampas from Chile
to Buenos Ayres, Lieutenant Isaac G. Strain explored the Isthmus of
Darien, Lieutenant Richard L. Page investigated the La Plata and its
tributaries, and Lieutenant William Lewis Herndon made his famous trip
across South America from the west coast to the headwaters of the
Amazon and then down that stream to the Atlantic. Furthermore, it was
at about this same time that Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry went
to Japan and by skillful diplomacy opened up that country to western
civilization.
Maury simply reveled in the results of these various explorations,
and his writings are filled with references to them. He knew all the
explorers personally, and furnished many of them with helpful advice
and encouragement in their undertakings,—especially Kane, De Haven,
Lynch, and Herndon. Dr. Kane wished to name the open polar sea after
Maury; but he waived the honor and wrote to Kane that he should yield
to his friends and let “his name go upon the waters”, and to-day it is
known as Kane Basin.
Maury’s investigations into the habits and nature of whales had led him
to conclude that there was really a Northwest Passage as well as open
water about the North Pole. The former theory was proved by Commander
McClure of H. M. S. _Investigator_, July 31, 1850 to April 6, 1853,
when he passed from west to east through the northern waters, and
settled the question. As to the polar sea, it is interesting to note in
passing that only recently two explorers of the air, Byrd and Amundson,
both verified the truth of Maury’s theory.
As regards the Antarctic regions, Maury called upon the nations of
the world to coöperate in sending an expedition there. “Ho for the
South Pole” was his slogan. “It is enough for me”, he wrote, “when
contemplating the vast extent of that unknown region, to know that
it is a part of the surface of our planet, and to remember that _the
earth was made for man_; that all knowledge is profitable; that no
discoveries have conferred more honor and glory upon the age in which
they were made, or been more beneficial to the world than geographical
discoveries; and that never were nations so well prepared to undertake
Antarctic exploration as are those that I now solicit”. Though the
Civil War interfered with the carrying out of plans for the exploring
of that portion of the globe, yet Maury’s name deserves to be
remembered among those whose continued interest in this enterprise
finally led to the conquering of the South Pole.
Another contribution which Maury made was the laying down of lanes for
steamers in the North Atlantic. The idea originated with R. B. Forbes
of Boston, but was worked out scientifically by Maury. In the year
1855, at the instigation of a board of underwriters of New York, who
paid for its cost, he published a chart illustrating what he called
Ocean Lanes. To prepare this chart he studied the logs of 46,000 days
of observations of the wind and weather of that part of the North
Atlantic. Two tracks, or lanes, twenty miles wide, were laid down, to
the more northern of which he proposed to confine the steamers westward
bound, while the eastward bound vessels were to use the other, situated
from one to ten degrees further south. Although the Secretary of the
Navy immediately ordered the ships of the navy to observe these lanes,
they were not generally adopted by the shipping of the world until
about thirty-six years after they were formulated, and it was not until
1898 that all of the transatlantic steamship companies consented in a
written agreement to use them. After a dispassionate investigation of
the lanes, they said that they were impressed with the patience and
researches that Maury must have made to have laid down such excellent
paths, and they recognized that, had the highways been followed
earlier, the great majority of the accidents which had befallen vessels
in the North Atlantic might have been avoided.
Maury, then, was not merely a theorizer without the power of applying
his ideas to the practical needs of men. His greatness consisted
in his being a man of vision and imagination, and at the same time
a man of tremendous industry who was willing to toil endlessly that
his theories might be made practical realities. This aim of unselfish
service to humanity was displayed in all his researches in the science
of the sea, from which came the works upon which his claim to fame
chiefly rests. These were “The Wind and Current Charts”, “Sailing
Directions”, and “The Physical Geography of the Sea”. That such a
claim is no idle one is borne out by the works themselves as well as
by their influence upon all succeeding marine research, and it was the
realization of this fact that led the Secretary of the Navy recently to
give to the oceanographic research now being planned the name “Maury
United States Naval Oceanographic Research”.
[Illustration:
_Courtesy of “The Journal of American History,” Vol. IV, Number 3
(1910)._
SET OF SILVER MEDALS PRESENTED TO MAURY BY POPE PIUS IX
See page 65]
[Illustration:
_Courtesy of “The Journal of American History,” Vol. IV, Number 3
(1910)._
MEDALS BESTOWED UPON MAURY
Gold medals bestowed upon Maury by the rulers of Sweden, Prussia,
Holland, Austria, Sardinia, and France, the Republic of Bremen, and
the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855. See page 65.]