HE RESORTS TO THE PEN 35 



dry rot, and the time was ripe for some courageous person 

 to awaken the country to a realization of the true state of 

 affairs and to point out the reforms that were needed. 

 Maury's former experience in the naval service and his 

 present enforced leisure led him to take up the task, 

 which he performed with a brilliancy and a degree of 

 success that was far beyond even his own expectation 

 and gave him a national reputation. 



His choice of the Messenger as the medium for convey- 

 ing to the public his ideas on maritime subjects had been 

 made the previous year when there was published in it 

 an unsigned article, entitled ''A Scheme for Rebuilding 

 Southern Commerce: Direct Trade with the South". 

 In this he first emphasized the importance of the Great 

 Circle route for steamers between English and American 

 ports and pointed out how the Great Western on her first 

 voyage might have saved 260 miles by using such a route 

 and thus have cut down the time of her passage by about 

 one whole day. Maury claimed afterwards that after 

 the appearance of his article a work on navigation was 

 published in England and that one of its chief recommen- 

 dations was its chapter on "great circle sailing". Its 

 author was rewarded with a prize from the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, and the work itself was extensively 

 patronized by the Board of Admiralty, a copy of which 

 they ordered to be supplied to each of the British men-of- 

 war in commission. 



The significance of the title, "Scraps from the Lucky 

 Bag", is indicated by the following introductory parody, 

 which enumerates the contents of a lucky bag on ship- 

 board : 



"Shoe of middy and waister's sock, 

 Wing of soldier and idler's frock, 



