Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806–1873) was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, before moving with his family at the age of 5 near Nashville, Tennessee. His brother, John, had fought in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812 aboard the Essex. Maury was obviously too young to be in the military at the time, and it appeared that his life would be made on the farm. An injury, however, changed the course of his life—as injury would later in life. At the age of 12, he fell 45 feet from a tree and injured his back. No longer cut out to work the farm, he was sent by his father to Harpeth Academy, where he excelled.
His passions were science and mathematics, along with a desire to follow in his brother’s footsteps. He received a midshipman’s commission with the help of Texas Rep. Sam Houston. His first assignment was to join the members of the new frigate Brandywine, which was set to return the American hero of French nobility, Marquis de Lafayette, to France. Maury made quick relations with fellow sailors and had the opportunity to converse with Lafayette. While the ship made its way through the Mediterranean and then back to New York, Maury showed his aptitude for maritime logistics.
When he returned, he was soon brought back from leave to board the frigate again, this time for a three-year voyage (that took four), which would be the U.S. Navy’s first circumnavigation of the globe. His time spent on the oceans provided extensive experience and navigational understanding. When he returned home, he passed his promotion exam, and for his next assignment, he held the position of sailing master. The next voyage would be a return to the Pacific, but Maury set his sights on setting a speed record. He searched for information on winds and currents but found none. He decided to take his own notes over the course of this (second) three-year voyage.
Upon returning home, he requested leave. He and his new wife, Ann Hull Herndon, began their life together near his birthplace. While on leave, he wrote his first two maritime articles, which were published by the American Journal of Science and Arts. He then followed with “A New Theoretical and Practical Treatise on Navigation” in 1836, which proved to be the first nautical science book by a U.S. Navy officer. It was so well received that it became required reading at the Naval Academy.
That same year, he requested to be assigned to the recently Congress-approved United States Exploring Expedition. Though not given the desired position of commander, he was commissioned as the expedition’s astronomer and hydrographer. When the commander of the expedition fell ill and was replaced, Maury decided that he could not abide under the leadership of Lt. Charles Wilkes―who would go on to lead the historic expedition.
In 1839, he suffered a career-altering injury when the stagecoach he was riding overturned. Having given up his seat for a lady, he was riding outside of the coach and was the only one injured. A dislocated right knee and a fractured right femur (which had to be rebroken and reset) forced a long recovery and resulted in his no longer being able to serve at sea. Therefore, he began campaigning for changes within the Navy, including the use of steam propulsion, developing trading partnerships with countries near the Pacific Rim, improving the Navy’s promotional system, and founding a naval academy that included a four-year course. When the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis was established, Maury was considered by many to be its “father.”
Unfit for long tours at sea, Maury was given command of the Depot of Charts and Instruments, which later became the U.S. Naval Observatory. He ran the observatory from 1844 until the outbreak of the Civil War. During his time, he discovered ships’ logs from all of the Navy’s voyages. Through his meticulous and systematic work, he published the first “Wind and Current Charts” in 1847, a work he had desired during his second three-year voyage. His work reduced voyages from New York to San Francisco by nearly 100 days, to Australia by 40 days, and to the Equator by 10 days.
In the 1850s, he turned his attention to the Atlantic Ocean, specifically conducting soundings of its floor. With the invention of the telegraph, he proposed laying telegraph cables along what he believed his soundings had discovered as the “telegraphic plateau.” The plateau was two miles deep and was “neither too deep nor too shallow.” When those cables were laid, extending from Newfoundland to Ireland, Maury was given much of the credit.
During this decade, he conjured up the idea for an international maritime conference. The conference, held in Brussels in 1853, was a success. Maury’s discussions led the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt to declare that the American Navy officer had founded a new science, the “physical geography of the sea.”
With that name, he wrote arguably his greatest work, “The Physical Geography of the Sea,” which was published in 1855 and was the first American oceanography textbook. His work would establish him as the “pathfinder of the seas,” “scientist of the seas,” the (probable) aforementioned “father of the Naval Academy,” and the “father of modern oceanography and naval meteorology.”
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