178 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



barked for Vera Cruz, without making any further ad- 

 vances toward the Confederacy. 



So much, then, for Maury's endeavors to secure ships 

 of war for the Confederacy, his work as a propagandist, 

 and his poHtical intrigues. But a fourth activity of his 

 remains to be considered. This had to do with experi- 

 ments with electric mines, — a continuation of that pio- 

 neer work in this field which he had commenced in 

 Richmond early in the war. It has often been stated 

 that this was the primary object of his mission to 

 England; but certainly neither his correspondence nor 

 his diary, which was begun at Bowdon on April 27, 1863, 

 not very long after his arrival abroad, bear out this 

 impression. The fact is, that not until after the com- 

 parative failure of his other plans and projects did 

 Maury devote much time and attention to these experi- 

 ments. Then from July, 1864 up to the time of his 

 departure from England the following spring, everything 

 indicates that his mind was absorbed with the electric 

 mine. 



It was not the fault of Maury, however, that this 

 weapon was not more quickly developed, and used more 

 effectively in the war. ''I saw", he bitterly complained 

 in one of his letters, "that he did spring at least one mine 

 on Farragut's ships (in the Battle of Mobile Bay). It is 

 so strange to me that sensible men will require to see 

 ship after ship blown up before they will have faith in 

 submarine mining. Don't you remember some drawings 

 that cousin John was making for me in the fall or winter 

 of 1861? That was a plan for mining our channel ways, 

 and our authorities have not yet faith in it to make of it 

 a regular organized system of defense". Even as late 

 as November, 1864 he wrote in his diary: "The question 



