Matthew Fontaine Maury
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Matthew Fontaine Maury (January 14, 1806 – February 1, 1873), USN - American astronomer, astrophysicist, historian, oceanographer, meteorologist, cartographer, author, geologist, educator.
He was nicknamed Pathfinder of the Seas and Father of modern Oceanography and Naval Meteorology and later, Scientist of the Seas, due to the publication of his extensive works in his books, especially Physical Geography of the Sea 1855, the first extensive and comprenhensive book on oceanography to be published. Maury made many important new contributions to charting winds and ocean currents, including pathways for ships at sea.
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[edit] Early life and career
Maury was of Huguenot ancestry with his ancestry traced back to France 1500 and Jean De la Fontaine. Maury was born in Spotsylvania, Virginia, but the family moved to Tennessee when he was age five. He desired to follow the path of fame and adventure of his older brother, Flag Lieutenant John Minor Maury, who had caught yellow fever after fighting pirates as an officer in the U.S. Navy. He had been buried at sea, leaving his wife and two sons behind, including Dabney Herndon Maury, who served in three wars and became a Major General and later U.S. Minister to Colombia, South America.
John and Matthew's grandfather (Reverend James Maury) was an inspiring teacher to three future US Presidents: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe.
Matthew Maury was initially forbidden from joining the Navy by his father, Richard Maury, because of the painful death of the eldest son, John. Maury had once considered attending West Point to get an education, but his opportunity of a Naval appointment came through Senator Sam Houston. In 1825, at the age of 19, thanks to Samuel Houston's influence, Maury joined the Navy as a midshipman on board the frigate Brandywine which was carrying the marquis de La Fayette home to France. Almost immediately, he began to study the seas and record methods of navigation. When a leg injury left him unfit for sea duty, Maury devoted his time to the study of naval meteorology, navigation, charting the winds, and currents, seeking the "Paths of the Seas" mentioned in Psalm 8 in the Bible.
From then until it was done Maury advocated naval reform, as well as a school for the Navy, land and sea, that would out-rival that of the army's West Point and an international weather service. He had charted the seas and currents and worked on charting land weather forecasting. Maury wrote many articles on Navy reforms and they were achieved in due time. This especially includes the United States Naval Academy that we know today.
His hard work on and love of plotting the oceans paid off when he became superintendent of the Department of Charts and Instruments in 1842, although this was mostly due to his articles on United States Naval reform published in newspapers. Upon the establishment of the United States Naval Observatory in 1844 thanks to President John Q. Adams in his last months of office, Lieutenant Maury became its first superintendent, holding that position until his resignation in April 1861.
Here Maury did Observatory work and sometimes with a team working under him, including James_Melville_Gilliss, Lieutenant John_Mercer_Brooke, William_Lewis_Herndon, Lieutenant Isaac Strain, John Herndon Maury of the Darien Gap expedition, and others — but they were all too soon assigned elsewhere after training in the observatory, as their duty was always temporary at the Observatory, and new men had to be trained over and over again on astronomical work. Maury also discovered and studied thousands of old ships' logs and charts that he discovered in storage in trunks dating back to the start of the U.S. Navy. Thus Lt. M F Maury was working with astronomical work and nautical work at the same time as well as constantly training new temporary men to assist in these works. Maury read and studied the old ships logs, primarily interested at first astronomy and in charting the migration of whales which was unknown to whalers at the time since they went to sea sometimes for years not knowing that whales migrate and that their paths could be charted.
Lieutenant Maury published his Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic, which showed sailors how to use the ocean's currents and winds to their advantage and drastically reduced the length of ocean voyages; his Sailing Directions and Physical Geography of the Seas and Its Meteorology remain standard. Maury's uniform system of recording synoptic oceanographic data was adopted by navies and merchant marines around the world and was used to develop charts for all the major trade routes.
Maury's work on ocean currents led him to advocate his theory of the Northwest Passage, as well as the hypothesis that an area in the ocean near the North Pole is occasionally free of ice. The reasoning behind this was sound, for whales harpooned in the Atlantic showed up in the Pacific and vice versa with a frequency that would have been impossible had they traveled around Cape Horn. Logs of old whaler ships that indicated the designs and markings of harpoons used by the logs' authors as well as those of harpoons found in captured whales led to this idea.
When whalers recorded descriptions of harpoons used by other ships on opposite oceans, Maury, knowing a whale to be a mammal and not a fish as many believed in his time, thought a passage between the oceans that was free of ice must exist to enable the whales to surface and breathe. Today, an area free of ice is known to be occasional, but in the 19th century it was a popular idea that inspired many explorers to seek a constant navigable sea route. Many of those explorers met their doom in the ice. Today nations know the reality of, and use, the Northwest Passage.
[edit] Before, During, and After the Civil War
With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Maury, born in Virginia, reluctantly had to resign his commission as a U.S. Navy Commander after decades of national and international hard work averaging 14 hours per day. It also brought him unrequested fame and honors, including being knighted by several nations and given medals with precious gems, as well as a collection of all medals struck by Pope Pius IX during his pontificate, a book dedication and more from Father Angelo Secchi. He was once a student under M. F. Maury in 1848 - 1849 in what is now the U.S. Naval Observatory.
They remained life-long friends as M. F. Maury did with most persons that were religious including James Hervey Otey, M. F. Maury's former teacher who before "1857" worked with Bishop Leonidas Polk on the construction of the University of the South in Tennessee. While visiting there, MFM was convinced to by his old teacher to give the "cornerstone speech". Maury had to delay his scientific trip to England to purchase more books for the observatory and speak with friends in the same vocations.
As a USN officer Maury accepted none of the awards if only because it was against US military policy to accept such things from foreign nations. However, they were offered to Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury's wife, Ann Hull Herndon-Maury, who was able to accept them for her husband and she didn't hesitate. Some have been placed at Virginia Military Institute while others were loaned to the Smithsonian and yet others remain in the family. Matthew Maury became a Commodore (often a title of courtesy) in the Virginia Provisional Navy, and a Commander in the Confederacy.
The war would bring ruin to many in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where Maury's immediate family lived. Maury spent the war in the South, as well as abroad mostly in England, Ireland France, acquiring ships and much more like -- trying through speeches and newspaper publications to get other nations to stop the Civil War which Maury also did long before that war started and he never stopped. M F Maury had sent William Lewis Herndon to learn of the Valley of the Amazon and Lardner Gibbon (both had worked at the USN Observatory) to start from Para, and for both of the lieutenants to explore the Amazon area to the ocean while gathering as much information as possible including on slavery in any of those areas. It could have, in Maury's thinking, have served as a "safety valve" to rid the USA of slavery.
No new slaves would then be brought from Africa as was the situation at that time whereas Southerners with slaves could move out of the USA while seeking soils that were not depleted of needed minerals. This took place circa 1854, long before the differences about slavery assisted in bringing a war of "brother against brother". Had it taken root southerner slave owners would not need to contest the western lands, they could go South or sell their slaves down south" as perhaps as some northerners did while it has been asserted that they did sale them down south since domesticated slaves were very expensive.
Maury also worked on an advanced electric torpedo design, and perfected it just after the war had ended. He later gave talks in Europe about the development of his torpedo and international cooperation on a weather bureau for land just as he had charted the winds and predicted storms at sea many years before. He gave these Weather on Land speeches until his last days when he collapsed giving a speech. He went home after he recovered and told Ann Hull Herndon-Maury, his wife, "I have come home to die."
During its first 1868 meeting, Maury helped launch the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Following the war, after serving Maximilian in Mexico as "Imperial Commissioner of Immigration and building Carlotta and New Virginia Colonies for displaced Confederates and any other immigrants from other lands, Maury accepted a teaching position at the Virginia Military Institute (V.M.I.), holding the chair of physics. He had many offers including one as president of William and Mary in Virginia but it seems he preferred being close to General Lee in Lexington while working at V.M.I. from statements Maury made in letters. Too, Maury served as a pall bearer for General Robert Edward Lee. (Source: Southern_Historical_Society's Papers)
During his time at V.M.I. Maury also wrote a book entitled The Physical Geography of Virginia. Maury had once been a gold mining superintendent outside of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and had studied geology intensly during that time so he was well suited for a book on geology as he was with his many other studies and work. The idea was to assist war-torn Virginia in minerals, farming and whatever else it took in getting her rebuilt after such destruction. More battles took place in Virginia than anywhere else, with Tennessee being second.
M F Maury died at home at V.M.I. He was exhausted from traveling throughout this nation while giving speeches promoting Land Meteorology. Commodore M F Maury breathed his last at exactly 12:40 P.M., on Saturday, February 1, 1873. He was attended by his son, Major Richard Launcelot Maury & son-in- law, former Major Spottswood Wellford Corbin. M F Maury asked his daughters and wife to leave the room. Last words were, "All's Well", a nautical expression, as he raised his hands into the air as though being taken to a better place. (Source: _Life_Of_Maury_ by his daughter, Diana Fontaine Maury-Corbin) His body was placed on display in the V.M.I. library (photo forthcoming. Maury was initially buried in the Gilham vault, across from Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, until the arrival of spring, at which time his remains were taken through Goshen Pass to Richmond, Virginia. He was reburied between Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
A monument to Maury, by sculptor Frederick William Sievers, was unveiled in Richmond on November 11, 1929. Maury Hall, the home of the Naval Science Department at the University of Virginia and headquarters of the University's Navy ROTC battalion, was named in his honor.j Another Maury Hall, named after him, houses the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Systems Engineering at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Ships have been named in his honor including three United States Navy ships named USS Maury. A fourth United States Navy ship named in his honor was the "USS Commodore Maury" (SP-656), patrol vessel and mine sweeper[1] of World War I.
Dan Graves considered Matthew Maury to be one of 48 great Scientists of Faith for the following reasons. Matthew Fontaine Maury lived by the Scriptures by the second, minute, hour -- constantly. He fully believed in what the Holy Scriptures stated and taught unlike some who were a bit more casual with it. Few things were ever written, or given as speeches, without the inclusion of scriptural references. He was raised with this and he also created his own prayer that he used every day.
[edit] International Honors, Awards, Medals, Monuments, and more
- [2] Images of medals, letters, -- 1996 website via Wayback Search Engine
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Flying Cloud -- An 1851 true story of America's most famous clipper ship that raced other ships from New York, around Cape Horn, to San Francisco by using both Maury's Wind and Current Charts plus his Sailing Directions. The clipper ship, Flying Cloud, was Captained by Josiah Perkins Cressey and navigated by [[3]] his wife Ellen Cressey who was the first person to navigate around the Horn by using the new route laid down by Lieut. M. F. Maury, of the observatory at Washington. She used his _Sailing Directions_, and _Winds and Currents_. She gained and held the 89 day speed record of that route for decades. The old route was usually 100+ days from New York, around the dangerous Cape Horn at the tip of South America and then onward to San Francisco. Source: _Flying Cloud_ by David W. Shaw (copyright) 2001. ISBN 0-06-093478-6 (pbk.) and _Physical Geography of the Sea_ (1855) by Matthew Fontaine Maury.
- _Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury, U.S.N. and C.S.N._, compiled by his daughter, Diana Fontaine Maury-Corbin (same Corbin family and the original home, "Mossneck", is still lived as of ((2006)) that was used in the film where the actual events took place in the film entitled, Gods and Generals.
- _Matthew Fontaine Maury: The Pathfinder of the Seas_ (1927) by Charles Lee Lewis, associate professor of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis. ISBN 0-405-13045-7 Reprinted (1980).
- Matthew Fontaine Maury, Scientist of the Sea, Frances L. Williams, (1969) ISBN 0-8135-0433-3
- Physical Geography of the Sea by Matthew Fontaine Maury 1855.
- Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology by Matthew Fontaine Maury (1861).
- Wind and Current Charts by Matthew Fontaine Maury
- Sailing Directions by Matthew Fontaine Maury
- [4] _Sky and Ocean Joined_ -- The U.S. Naval Observatory 1830-2000 by Steven J. Dick (2003) ("The Maury Years" 1844-1861)
- The Pathfinder of the Seas, The Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury, by John W. Wayland, (1930). Professor Wayland writes, in the back of the book, under chronology, that in 1916 the Virginia legislature created a law whereby "Maury Day " -- "..would be celebrated in all Virginia schools" (and it was) -- but it has been abandoned for unknown reasons.
- Tracks in the sea: Matthew Fontaine Maury and the mapping of the oceans by Chester G. Hearn 2002.
Camden, Maine: International Marine. ISBN 0-07-136826-4
[edit] Maury's publications
- Whaling Charts
- Wind and Current Charts
- Sailing Directions
- [5] U.S.Navy Contributions to Science and Commerce (1847)
- Explanations and Sailing Directions to Accompany the Wind and Current Charts, 1851, 1854, 1855
- Lieut. Maury’s Investigations of the Winds and Currents of the Sea, 1851
- On the Probable Relation between Magnetism and the Circulation of the Atmosphere, 1851
- Maury’s Wind and Current Charts: Gales in the Atlantic, 1857
- The Physical Geography of the Sea, 1855, 1856, 1859
- Observations to Determine the Solar Parallax, 1856
- Amazon, and the Atlantic Slopes of South America, 1853
- Commander M. F. Maury on American Affairs, 1861
- The Physical Geography of the Sea and Its Meteorology, 1861
- Maury’s New Elements of Geography for Primary and Intermediate Classes
- Geography: "First Lessons"
- Elementary Geography: Designed for Primary and Intermediate Classes.
- Geography: "The World We Live In" by M. F. Maury
- Published Address of Com. M. F. Maury, before the Fair of the Agricultural & Mechanical Society.
- Geology: A Physical Survey of Virginia;
- Her Geographical Position, Its Commercial Advantages and National Importance, Virginia Military Institute, 1869
[edit] External links
- [6] Naval Oceanographic Office -- Matthew Fontaine Maury Oceanographic Library - The World's Largest Oceanographic Library.
- [7] United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps - Matthew Fontaine Maury - Pathfinders Division.
- [8] The Maury Project; A comprehensive national program of teacher enhancement based on studies of the physical foundations of oceanography.
- [9] The Mariner's Museum: Matthew Fontaine Maury Society.
- [10] Online development; Biography of Matthew Fontaine Maury.
- [11] Letter to President John Quincy Adams from Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury (1847) on the "National" United_States_Naval_Observatory regarding a written description of the observatory, in detail, with other information relating thereto, including an explanation of the objects and uses of the various instruments.
- [12] The National Observatory and The Virginia Historical Society (May 1849)
- [13] Biography of Matthew Fontaine Maury] at U.S. Navy Historical Center.
- [14] Matthew Fontaine Maury continues to inspire adults and children - a song by grade schoolers.
