MAURY, MATTHEW F. 



481 



session of the principality of Arsoli in May, 

 1840. He had been all his life the most stren- 

 uous adherent and champion of the temporal 

 power of the Papacy in the Roman States, and 

 until that power was overthrown was Post- 

 master-general for the Pontifical States. He 

 was cheered in his last moments by ''the 

 Pontifical blessing." As a proof of his ad- 

 herence to the old state of things, it is stated 

 on good authority that from the time when 

 King Victor Emmanuel's troops entered Rome 

 he had kept the gates of his pahice closed, and 

 steadily refused either to retire from the Holy 

 City or to have anything to say to the new- 

 comers. 



MAURY, MATTHEW FONTAINE, LL. D., an 

 American hydrographer, physicist, and author, 

 born in Spottsylvania County, Va., January 

 14, 1806; died in Lexington, Va., February 1, 

 1873. When a child of four years old, his father 

 removed with his family to a farm near Frank- 

 lin, Tenn. Here the opportunities for early 

 education were meagre, being only those af- 

 forded by the "Old Fields" schools of that 

 time, but in his sixteenth year young Manry 

 entered Harpeth Academy, then under the 

 charge of Rev. James H. Otey, afterward Prot- 

 estant Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee. Here 

 his progress in his studies was rapid. In 1825 he 

 received a midshipman's warrant and entered 

 the U. S. Navy. There was then no naval 

 academy, and most of the education the mid- 

 shipmen received was from the chaplains, as 

 many of the higher officers, though brave and 

 gallant men, had not much reputation for 

 scholarship. Under these circumstances many 

 of the midshipmen gave very little attention 

 to study. Manry was, however, one of the few 

 who were bound to master their profession, 

 and every leisure moment on shipboard was 

 devoted to study. He acquired a thorough 

 knowledge of navigation, under very great 

 difficulties. At the age of twenty-five he had 

 attained the rank of passed midshipman, and 

 was appointed master to the sloop-of-war Fal- 

 month, then ordered to the Pacific. The low 

 barometer off Cape Horn, and the curious phe- 

 nomena attending it, excited his attention, and 

 he communicated the results of his observa- 

 tions to the American Journal of Science, his 

 first scientific paper. On his return to the 

 United States in 1834 he published a treatise 

 on navigation, which years after became the 

 text-book of the U. 8. Navy a bold under- 

 taking for a passed midshipman who had been 

 but nine years in the navy. In 1837, after 

 twelve years of service, he was promoted to 

 the rank of lieutenant, and soon after had the 

 misfortune to fracture his right leg at the knee 

 joint, and became a cripple for life. Being 

 thus prevented from active sea-duty, he was 

 obliged to content himself with such shore- 

 doty as he could perform, and he turned at 

 once to his pen. A series of papers on naval 

 reform, and other topics of national interest, 

 over the signature of "Harry Bluff," mostly 



VOL. XIII. 31 A 



published in the Southern Literary Messenger, 

 soon called attention to him by their boldness 

 and their thoroughly practical character, and 

 led to the abolition of the old Board of Navy 

 Commissioners, the organization of the pres- 

 ent Bureau system, and the establishment of 

 the Naval Academy. At his instance, and in 

 consequence of his earnest advocacy, a navy- 

 yard was established at Memphis, a series of 

 observations on the quantity of water, and the' 

 velocity of the current of the Mississippi near 

 the surface and the bottom, were taken, and 

 river-gauges established at different points. 

 He also advocated with strong arguments the 

 enlargement of the Illinois & Michigan Canal 

 into a ship-canal, and the improvement of the 

 overflowed lands of the Mississippi on a uni- 

 form system. We are indebted to him also for 

 the warehousing system, so beneficial to our 

 commercial interests. In 1842 Lieutenant Mau- 

 ry was appointed Superintendent of the Depot 

 for Charts and Instruments at Washington, 

 which was afterward developed into the Na- 

 tional Observatory and Hydrographical De- 

 partment of the United States. Here, by ex- 

 amination of the old log-books stored for fifty 

 years in the Navy Department, he began the 

 preparation of those wind and current charts 

 and sailing-directions which were to make his 

 name so famous. The first completed was one 

 relative to the voyage between the United 

 States and Rio Janeiro. It was some time be- 

 fore any captain coold be induced to try this 

 chart, but when once tried it was found to ex- 

 pedite the voyage so much that it was in great 

 demand. He then drew up the form of a log 

 containing columns for such facts as would be 

 useful in carrying on this work, and furnished 

 the blanks to the masters of vessels bound to 

 foreign ports, and they were invited to join 

 him in collecting data for making other charts. 

 A great enthusiasm was thus aroused and he 

 had ample returns from zealous and compe- 

 tent observers in all parts of the world. The 

 information thus gathered was reduced to a 

 system and utilized. The value of this system 

 being now fully demonstrated, Lieutennnt 

 Maury was authorized by the U. 8. Govern- 

 ment to solicit the cooperation of European 

 powers in the establishment of a general sys- 

 tem of meteorological research at sea. Copies 

 of the charts and sailing-directions were fur- 

 nished without charge to the public vessels of 

 all countries, and were also distributed gratui- 

 tously to the masters of merchant-vessels, on 

 condition that each one thus furnished should 

 keep a record in the prescribed form, and at 

 the end of the voyage forward it to Washing- 

 ton, or to Admiral Fitzroy's office in London. 

 He also called the Maritime Conference held 

 at Brussels in 1853, in which the United States 

 and nearly all the European Governments were 

 represented, and which led to the establish- 

 ment of offices to cooperate in the system of 

 research by all of them. He then proceeded 

 to complete his "Wind and Current Charts 



