The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-21


 oiution. now in annual session in wsshington, is that of erecting . nt. ting memorial to the late Matthew Fontaine Maury. naval ohacer and ny. drographer of international fame. This plan was conceived by WatAuga Chap ter, D. A R., of Memphis. Tenns in lsos. when its naembsrs were deep in the study of the American navy and they realised what . great debt the nation as . while owes thia man.
 Not because be was . virginian born; not because he spent his early years and received his education in Tennessee; not because he was . Com mosiore In the Confederate Navy. do these patriotic Southern women ask of the, Nation a suitable memorial for Maury. But they ask 1t because he was, perhaps, the greatest man Amer ica has yet produced: because he mAs- tered the paths of the sea: beoause ne gave the Nation its Naval Academy. and because he brought the leading nations of the world to the establish ment of a universal system of neteoro- logical observation Because Maury was potential citisef of the world. and gave freely and gladly to all na- tiona the results Of his scientfnc re- searches and discoveries. it has been proposed that this memorial be not io- cal, not even national. but that other nations be asked to cooperate ana make 1t international.
 The Memphis chapter brought the the matter before the National p. ~. A., and Congress was memorialized on the matter. bill asking for an ap- propriation Of ,5o,000 for memorial, was introduced in Congress last ses- sion by Senator Frazier and Represent atiye Gordon of Tennessee. and re- -. rx~. knk kg~rs< fxcrdnn about q month ago. Action Will pos sibiy be taken In December. The, oiii does not recite the manner in which the s5o,O00 will be- used. Watauga Chapters first idea was that the memorial take the form of e lighthouse an international monument, to pc erected off the eastern coast of brazii' at Rocas Shoals. where Maury had or ten said one was needed.
 It is interesting to note that there was once q monument to Maury in the Virginia. mountains. but that unappre- ciative persons soon diverted 1t to pri- vate use. It was shortly after the death of the great man at hts nome in Lexington. where he was an instructor in the Virginia Military Institute. tnst a body of admiring friends and neigh bors had a big anchor cast. and after much diniculty had 1t elevated to high mountain point overlooking Gosh. en Pass-a place that Maury loved and where he often went. Farmers and other men living in the neighbor- hood, evidently oblivous of the fact that 1t was Maurys who. for their pen- eft. had charted the air and made the first meteoroloRical surveys. soon car ried away the anchor. bit by bit. to pc used in the making or mending of farm implements. until little or none re- mains.
 Usually when boy disobeys parent al admonition and runs away to see. public sentiment condemns him. and takes the side of the enraged parent. Yet the history of the sea-faring worl ihas proved that 1t was the best thing ever happened for the nation when young Maury longing for the sea in his heart, and the call of the ur- charted ocean bed ringing in his ears. left his home near Franklin, Tenn, and enlisted in the American Navy. He was aboard the Brandywine. when an appreciative American nation placed it at the disposal of the great Lafayette. for, the homeward journey, to France. In 1928 Maury was appointed a mid shipman in the navy and the follow ing year made a journey around the world as an 'offioer aboard the Vim open for the many deficiencies in the naval system. and for the means of improving the routes of the vessels.
 An accident in 183e that made him Q cripple caused his appointment as head of the Bureau of Charts in Washing ton, and in the time that lay between 1s4f and 1881 he wrought those thinEs that made him world-renoWned. world honored, and worid-loved. From the great mass of log books that had ac- cumulated in that ofiice, for many years and had hitherto been regarded as so much waste. he mapped the ocean bed and the routes of ocean travel that toucned every civilized country on the globe. He compiled six charts and eight large volumes of sailing direct ions" By his system of circle sailing. he showed how advantage should be taken of wind and ocean current, and declared that the distance from New York to San Francisco. around the Horn. could be shortened by forty days.
 The old sea dogs wagged their heads more sea-captain thought it might be an idea worth proving. So Captain Jackson, of the H. W. D. c Wright. got Maury's charts and put out for Rio Ja neiro, to see how nearly right the scientist might be. He made the round trip in the same time that II usually took for the outgoing trip.
 
 ping world. races over the routes mapped by Mahry became the thing In the early ffties, four clipper ships. the Wild Pigeon, the John Gflpin. the Flying Fish and the Trade Wind, set out from New York for the Golden Gate. sailing on different dates and lenathening their trips only so much as they digressed from Maury's tables. One made the journey In a little over ninety-four days, the greatest digres- sor in 11S days.
 Then came a big race. The General Morton and the Prin1a Donna were towed out of New York harbor and started for San Francisco. to make l6,0O0 mile race over Maury's route, It was an exciting time, for they were almost always in sight of one an- other, crossed the equator together and came. into San Francisco only three hours apart. Since his charts had these proofs. the commerce of the world has been saved $40. .000, ,000 year.
 To him the great floor of the sea was as familiar as the hills and plains about his Tennessee home. and the currents were as clearly known as the local weather conditions and the flow of the streams about Washington. Once in the non-wireless days, when the transport San Francisco, with hun dreds of United States troops on board, almost foundered in an Atlantic hurri- cane, and vague rumors began to go about specuiating on its fate, the Sec retary of the Navy sent post-haste for Maury to tell him where the ship might be. -Maury showed him how that if the vessel, after being struck by The hurricane in this place, were drift ing that this current. and this wind aud fhfa addv vvnuld al nInxy @h a3r -,o -s.