62 



The National Geographic Magazine 



be informed of necessary corrections to 

 their outfits of charts. 



To obviate as far as possible the dan- 

 gers to navigation resulting from such 

 a lack of system and care, the Secretary 

 of the Navy in 1830, upon a recommen- 

 dation from the Board of Navy Com- 

 missioners, directed the establishment 

 of a depot of charts and instruments, 

 under the charge of the late Commodore 

 Goldsborough, then a lieutenant. This 

 was the inception of the Hydrographic 

 Office, the province of which for the 

 first five years of its existence was sim- 

 ply to purchase, correct, and keep on 

 hand charts and instruments for our 

 naval vessels only. 



It was not until 1835 that any effort 

 was made to construct our own charts. 

 In that 3'ear a lithographic press was 

 purchased, and in the following year 

 the first charts actually executed by the 

 depot appeared for issue to the service 

 and merchant marine. 



In 1842, the bureau system of the 

 Navy Department was established by 

 act of Congress, the depot of charts and 

 instruments being attached to the Bu- 

 reau of Ordnance and Hydrography, to 

 constitute the hydrographic branch of 

 that bureau. 



Lieutenant Maury had in the mean- 

 time been detailed to duty in this 

 depot of charts and instruments, and 

 in 1844, upon the completion of the 

 Naval Observatory building (which was 

 afterward frequently officially desig- 

 nated as the Naval Observatory and 

 Hydrographic Office), the depot of 

 charts and instruments was moved into 

 that building, Lieutenant Maury be- 

 coming the Superintendent of the Naval 

 Observatory and Hydrographic Office. 



Lieutenant Maury devoted the greater 

 part of his energies to hydrographic 

 subjects, and for the seventeen years 

 during which he had charge of this 

 office did more in the interest of the 

 merchant marine than was accomplished 

 by similar branches of all foreign gov- 



ernments combined. He began the col- 

 lection of information from the logs of 

 men-of-war and merchant vessels for 

 the purpose of constructing nautical 

 charts to show the prevailing winds and 

 currents, their limits and characteris- 

 tics, and, in general, the physical fea- 

 tures of the ocean, and all facts of in- 

 terest or value to the maritime commu- 

 nity. This was continued during the 

 seventeen years he remained in charge, 

 and resulted in the issue of wind and 

 current charts, track charts, trade-wind 

 charts, whale feeding ground charts, 

 thermal charts, storm and rain charts, 

 and eight large volumes of sailing di- 

 rections, all of which were concerned 

 with the safe navigation of the known 

 waters of the globe. In addition, there 

 were issued nearly fifty charts of dif- 

 ferent sections of the world, which were 

 printed from engraved copper plates. 



On the breaking out of the civil war 

 Maury cast his fortunes with the South, 

 and his practical labors for the Navy 

 and merchant marine ceased. He was 

 succeeded by one of the most accom- 

 plished officers in the service, the then 

 Commander Gillis, and the Hydro- 

 graphic Office during the four years of 

 the civil war gained an excellent repu- 

 tation in and out of the service through 

 its ability to keep our war vessels sup- 

 plied with the latest charts, nautical 

 publications, and other necessary aids 

 to safe navigation. 



The work of the office was so strictly 

 navigational in character that shortly 

 after the civil war began it was trans- 

 ferred to the Bureau of Navigation, 

 under which bureau it remained until 

 1898, when it was transferred to the 

 Bureau of Equipment, under the direc- 

 tion of which it now remains. 



In 1866, the year after the ending of 

 the civil war, the connection between 

 the Naval Observatory and the depot of 

 charts and instruments was severed by 

 law. An act of Congress passed in that 

 year established "A Hydrographic Of- 



