Chapter 



16 



SEAMAN'S OCEAN— 

 LT. M. F. MAURY, USN 



I 



-N VIEW of all the progress we have made since, it is extraor- 

 dinary to think that a little over a hundred years ago, say about 1840, 

 we had almost no organized, scientific information about the oceans. 

 There had accumulated a considerable number of observations about 

 the behavior of the ocean and the weather, but these observations 

 were obscured rather than explained by a great amount of traditional 

 belief, abstruse theory, hearsay evidences and even superstition. What 

 was totally lacking was a systematic method for collecting the facts, 

 for assembling them and for having a fresh look at their meaning. 

 There did not exist anywhere a scientific institution devoted solely to 

 the study of the sea. To be sure we had charts that showed, with an 

 approach to accuracy, the outlines of the land and water in the better- 

 known and more frequently traveled parts of the world. There were 

 sounding and navigation marks for the frequented harbors and a 

 peppering of soundings for depths up to the hundred-fathom line 

 offshore. 



A few soundings to bottom had been taken here and there in the 

 open ocean but the methods of securing these soundings were sketchy 

 and many of them were quite inaccurate. Celestial navigation had 

 been well developed but the methods were involved and cumber- 

 some. Then, as now, it was easy to get a noon observation for lati- 

 tude but longitude was still a problem. Longitude depended on the use 



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