252 : The Atlantic 



He did not rest content with his study o£ past records. Though he 

 had Httle authority and no funds for such an undertaking, Maury 

 devised standard methods for recording information on winds and 

 currents and these he incorporated in standard log books which he 

 induced captains of merchant vessels to use voluntarily by promising 

 them that eventually they would get better charts and sailing instruc- 

 tions. 



For purposes of such study Maury created charts that divided the 

 ocean up into 5° squares of latitude and longitude. He recognized six- 

 teen compass directions or points. By the use of appropriate symbols 

 he could make entries showing for each square how often the wind 

 blew from each of the points, how hard it blew. . . . There was pro- 

 vision also for recording the direction and speed of the current, the 

 temperature of the water, state of the barometer and other pertinent 

 facts. He made one chart of this character for each of the months of 

 the year. Thus, he was able to show any important seasonal varia- 

 tions of the ocean's character. 



At first he had few direct observations to guide him; but, by comb- 

 ing the observations of many ships over a long period of time, he was 

 able to draw charts which, for the first time in history, presented a 

 picture of the winds, weathers and the currents of the ocean. Taken 

 together, the charts showed how the ocean could be expected to 

 behave at any particular time and place. 



To be sure, these were pictures of probabilities, but they were prob- 

 abilities based on a great number of cases. It turned out that the 

 ocean is sufficiently consistent so that the probabilities reveal its true 

 character. 



By 1847 Maury had published Wind and Current Charts of the 

 North Atlantic Ocean. In a few years of ceaseless work he had 

 shaped the foundations of the two new sciences — oceanography and 

 meteorology. 



Maury's prodigious efforts produced a prodigious success. The first 

 edition of the North Atlantic Charts was instantly purchased and 

 put to use and a whole succession of subsequent and improved edi- 

 tions were absorbed as fast as they could be brought off the presses. 

 Maury's collaborators and those who followed his methods were 

 soon outsailing all their competitors. Maury's charts and methods 

 proved useful to all types of ships and on all ocean passages but there 

 were certain circumstances that gave an added and spectacular value 

 to his work. One circumstance was that in the year following the first 



