Seaman's Ocean — Lt. M. F. Maury, USN : 255 



established, it followed the ideas that he had originally proposed. He 

 proposed the establishment of a railway or a canal across the Isth- 

 mus of Panama. It was Maury's indefatigable scientific work in the 

 study of the ocean extending over many years that made it possible 

 for Cyrus Field, after repeated failure, to finally lay the first transat- 

 lantic cable. 



Maury's work first made the scientific world conscious of how the 

 methods of science could be applied to the study of the oceans and 

 the skies. Even a condensed outline of his work helps us to a feel- 

 ing of greater intimacy with the ocean. The Physical Geography of 

 the Sea, published in America in 1855, was the first systematic book 

 on oceanography and also on meteorology. Even a limited acquaint- 

 ance with the book would show anyone that Maury was describing 

 the ocean as an organized system of winds and currents. He starts off 

 with a description of the Gulf Stream, describing its origin, its course 

 in the western Atlantic and its behavior in the northern and the east- 

 ern part of the Atlantic. He described its depth and its relationship 

 to surrounding water. He described the effect of the Gulf Stream on 

 the climate of England and the continent and described at length the 

 bearing it had on the management of ships upon the sea and its effect 

 on trade; contrasting, for example, the trade growth of the ports of 

 South Carolina with that of New York. He referred to the effect that 

 this current had on the feedings of sea life including that of whales. 

 In other chapters he described such matters as measurements of the 

 temperature of water at different depths, the taking of soundings in 

 connection with which he printed the first bathymetric chart of the 

 North Atlantic and a score of other matters that were systematically 

 treated for the first time. It is quite evident that from the point of 

 view of modern knowledge Maury occasionally made an error and 

 occasionally drew wrong conclusions. This is not surprising. What 

 is surprising is that he was so often right. Surprising also is the vol- 

 ume and the scope of his work. 



Occasionally a modern writer on oceanography is tempted to refer 

 to him as having an interest only in the study of weather and the 

 study of surface currents in the ocean. Such comments must be based 

 on a very superficial acquaintance with Maury's work. He was inter- 

 ested in multiple measures of salinity and of temperature and of meas- 

 ures taken at depth no less than on the surface. He valued such meas- 

 ures quite as much as measures of surface currents and his writing 

 showed that he understood their theoretical importance. He issued 

 instructions for securing such measures. He was guilty of no lack of 



