HIS THREE CRUISES 21 



system in the navy; and I believe that of every officer 

 will tally with if'.i 



Maury had the privilege of continuing his studies 

 ashore in New York and Washington for several months 

 before he embarked on his next cruise. He was then 

 preparing himself for the examination for the rank of 

 passed midshipman. This examination covered the 

 following subjects: Bowditch's "Navigation"; Playfair's 

 "Euclid", Books 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6; McClure's "Spherics"; 

 Spanish or French; Mental and Moral Philosophy; 

 Bourdon's "Algebra"; and Seamanship. The time de- 

 voted to each midshipman by the examiners, in the order 

 of his appointment, ranged from fifty minutes to two 

 hours. To judge from the questions in seamanship, the 

 examination was largely of a very practical nature, — on 

 how to handle the sails of a ship and how to navigate her. 



In his examination, Maury passed twenty-seven in a 

 class of forty. An explanation of this apparently low 

 standing may be gathered from the following account of 

 the manner of conducting such examinations: "The 

 midshipman who seeks to become learned in the branches 

 of science that pertain to his profession, and who before 

 the Examining Board should so far stray from the lids 

 of Bowditch as to get among the isodynamic and other 

 lines of a magnetic chart, would be blackballed as cer- 

 tainly as though he were to clubhaul a ship for the Board 

 in the Hebrew tongue. . . . Midshipmen, turning to 

 Bowditch, commit to memory the formula of his first or 

 second method for 'finding the longitude at sea by a 

 lunar observation'. Thus crammed or 'drilled', as it is 

 called, they go before the Board of Examination, where, 

 strange to say, there is a premium offered for such quali- 



* "Scraps from a Lucky Bag" in Southern Literary Messenger, May, 1840. 



