13 



The new plans were approved, and the work of building Plans foraDe- 

 the depot was at once commenced. The site chosen by toV^ioptedand 

 President Tyler was a knoll on the Government reservation sanction °co C m - 

 marked "No. 4" in the original plan of Washington, and the menced - 

 edifice that was then begun is that now known as the United 

 States Naval Observatory. 



Upon the same date on which Congress authorized the Establishment 

 erection of a permanent depot for the charts and iustru- ninL^r e a U n°d 

 ments (August 31, 1842), an act was passed making radical ^on^JthfAa- 

 changes in the organization of the Navy Department. (U. goTvin and the 

 S. Stat. L., vol. v, p. 579.) B ? ard of Com- 



7 * ' missioners. 



This act dissolved the Board of Navy Commissioners, 

 which had virtually ruled the navy for upwards of twenty- 

 seven years, and created in their stead a number of bureaus 

 in the Navy Department, each being under the immediate 

 charge of an officer who was designated as its chief. 



The Secretary of the Navy, in an order dated the 26th of The Depot at . 

 the-following November, defining the duties and responsi- n e°wf*inade la- 

 bilities of the several bureaus, directed that the depot of and UO H^dTog^ 

 charts and instruments should be attached to the Bureau ra P h y- 

 of Ordnance and Hydrography, and should constitute the 

 hydrographic branch of that bureau. (Records Bureau of 

 Ordnance, 1842. vol. 1, p. 14.) 



While Lieutenant Gilliss was engaged in the preparation Bemovaiofthe 

 of plans for the permanent depot authorized by Congress, vamaavenue^e" 

 and afterwards in superintending its construction, Lieut. fZ^ t hTnt 

 M. F. Maury had been placed in charge of the old Depot; jjjjeets* n'<?r t h^ 

 and, with the consent of the Department, had removed it west - 

 to a building situated on Pennsylvania avenue, between 

 Twenty-fourth and Twenty -fifth streets northwest. 



On the completion of the new "Depot and Observatory," Lieut, m. f. 

 as it was then called, in September, 1844, Lieutenant Maury ^^aL "charge 

 became its Superintendent, and at once transferred to it the of the De P ot - 

 nautical books, charts, and instruments belonging to the 

 Navy Department. 



While his predecessor had been inclined to favor the as- collection of 

 tronomical part of the depot, Lieutenant Maury's energies thi or wLnd\nd 

 were devoted almost entirely to hydrographic subjects. He current charts. 

 took immediate steps in the interest of that branch of sci- 

 ence, by beginning the collection of information from the 

 logs of men-of-war and merchant vessels, " according to a 

 carefully devised scheme for the purpose of making charts 

 to show the prevailing winds and currents, their limits and 



