15 



Since the passage of the act of. 1842 the Depot of Charts Firstvoiumeof 

 and Instruments had been frequently designated officially servat ions is- 

 as a " Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Office," though 

 its lawful title remained unchanged. Though still in name 

 simply the Depot of Charts and Instruments, astronomical 

 work was by no means neglected. The first volume of ob- 

 servations was published in 184G, under the authority of the 

 Bon. George Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy ; and in 1851 

 the second volume of the same series made its appearance. 



During the seventeeu years of Lieutenant Maury's super, 

 intendency, from 1844 to 1861, a great part of the force 

 under his employ was engaged, as has been said, in the 

 preparation and publication of the Wind and Current 

 Charts, and in the compilation of Sailing Directions. The 

 charts were issued, from time to time, as they were succes- 

 sively completed, and their scope was gradually extended 

 to include every sea frequented by our ships. Eight vol- 

 umes of Sailing Directions, containing information upon a 

 vast number of subjects connected with navigating the 

 ocean, were published and issued to vessels of the Navy and 

 merchant marine. 



Some idea of the work accomplished can be formed when Number of the 



• ■' i i-i t -i-i-r- n Wind and Our- 



lt is known that two hundred thousand copies of the Wind rent charts and 

 and Current Charts, and twenty thousand copies of Sailing tions distributed 



t^, . , , ,, , anions; merchant- 



Directions were issued gratuitously to merchant vessels men. " 



alone whose masters had furnished information to the De- 

 pot. The immediate charge of that part of the Depot de- 

 voted to nautical instruments and navigating charts was 

 given to an officer, with several assistants, whose duties 

 consisted in taking meteorological and magnetic observa- 

 tions, observing the errors and rates of chronometers, and 

 in examining, purchasing, and issuing charts, instruments, 

 and nautical books to vessels of the navy. During the 

 period from 1844 to 1861 there were engraved and pub- 

 lished by the Depot forty four general sailing charts, all 

 from the surveys of the North Pacific Surveying Expedi- 

 tion under Commander John Rodgers ; also a number of 

 plans of anchorages and passages in the Fiji groups, from 

 surveys of the Exploring Expedition under Commodore M. 

 C. Perry. 



On the breaking out of the civil war, Maury, then a Maurys deser- 

 commander, suddenly deserted the post which he had filled andthe^ervice. 3 

 so long, and with such exceptional ability, and has&ly fled 



