62 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



the sea had reached is best illustrated by the incident of 

 the San Francisco. This ship, bound from New York to 

 San Francisco with a regiment of soldiers on board, was 

 disabled in a hurricane on the day before Christmas, 

 1853 while crossing the Gulf Stream about 300 miles 

 from Sandy Hook. Her position on the following day, 

 and the next day after that, was reported by passing ves- 

 sels which were, however, unable to render her assistance. 

 Maury was then asked by the Secretary of the Navy to 

 calculate her position for the assistance of the two relief 

 ships which were to be dispatched in search of the un- 

 fortunate vessel. Although three other ships, the Kilby, 

 the Three Bells, and the Antarctic, fell in with the wreck 

 and rescued the remainder of her passengers, after 179 

 men had been washed overboard, yet it is an astonishing 

 fact that Maury had so accurately guided the two 

 searching revenue cutters that one of them went within 

 sight of the spot where the drifting vessel had shortly 

 before been found. 



There was still another important passage that Maury 

 aided materially in shortening. This was the voyage 

 from England to Australia and New Zealand. He op- 

 posed the British Admiralty route which passed near the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and advised ships to sail 600 to 800 

 miles further westward and then to continue southward 

 until they reached the prevailing strong westerly winds 

 which drove the clippers onward at a tremendous rate. 

 He advised them, when homeward bound, to continue 

 in those "brave west winds" and return by way of Cape 

 Horn. A voyage out to Australia and home again, 

 accordingly, encircled the globe. Whereas by the old 

 route it had taken about 120 days each way on the 

 average, by Maury's new route the passage for American 



