Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-08-19
Geographic News
Bulletins BY the
National Geographic Society

wiz oOISt Ell HE YEA e
The news that the South is plan
ming a memorial to Matthew Fon-
tame Maury may give rise to the
question on many lips, who is
Maury?"
I'VE honor the railroad builders
who tracked the wilderness for our
easy travel; we take the cea for
granted. An observation car pas
senger, conscious of bridges, tun-
nels. cuts and fills realizes that
the " engineer preceded the one
In the cab. But many a trans
Atlantic traveller considers that
Columbus found the way-and
that's that" remarks a bulletin
from the Washington. D. c., head
quarters of the National Geographic
Society.
A Famous Triumyirate
"In point of fact the observation
Of winds and currents. the marking
Of fog and iceberg limits and rain
areas. and soundings for tempera-
ture constitute a preliminary work
without which the safe and swift
ocean travel. of today would be i'm
possible. The pioneer in this work
was Matthew Fontaine Maury.
whose name is as familiar to the
dS 40 tiloI vi la ~
the naturalist. In the early annals
of the American Navy he is linked
with Charles Wilkes and Matthew
Calbraith Perry"
The bulletin then quotes from a
communication of Josephus Daniels
which relates the fascinating nara
tive of Maury's career as follows:
"Maury early heard the call to
the sea. His elder brother had lost
his life in the naval service, and his
father opposed Maury's ambition 70
follow the profession that had rob-
bed him of his first-born, even
though tho appointment came from
Sam Houston, then congressman
history hangs around the association
Of Houston and Maury-fghters
both and American pioneers and
statesmen. too!
The consuming passion. which
made him always follow the path
of duty. did not permit ever paren-
tai objection to dissuade Maury
from the high calling in which he
was to win primacy.
No Naval Academy Then
There was 40 naval academy
when Maury entered the navy. He
had been SO proficient in mathemat-
y ih LAX SOuilIAy oClOOl III 1ClIlSS-
see that he was called upon by his
teacher to instruct the younger boys
and on shipboard he continued the
methodical study which made him
the first scholar INC scientist in the
navy.
Using a Spanish work on naviga-
ton, he acquired a knowledge Of the
Spanish language along with a mas
terry of a subject essential to a sea-
faring man. In his watches he drill
ed into his mind the formulas from
notes made below decks.
Laying broad foundations, it was
not until his voyage around Cape
Horn, when he sought in vain for |
reliable information as to the winds
and currents to be encountered and
the best maths for the vessel to fol-
low, that this need determined the |
Particular study to which he would
devote himself. When but twenty
eight years old he published his
treatise on navigation. 1t attracted
favorable attention in this country |
AMI abroad and became the text
book OF the navy.
patches of KNOWLEDGE"
"Incapacitated for active service
by a broken leg, his ambition for
command afloat had to be abandon
ed, though while IN crutches he ap-
piled for sea service. which was de-
MED him. Writing to a friend at
this time, he said: TIL content my
self with c~ultivating a few little |
patches OF knowledge. What shall
they be? Shall they be light and
heat, storms Or currents? Ship
building or sh~ip-sailing? steam or
~projectiles? hollow shot or gravita-
ton? gases or fluids? winds or
tides-or-?'
His patches Of knowledge grew
until they almost covered the geog-
raphy Of the world and all naval
lore, as the waters cover the sea.
In his famous Scraps from a Lucky
Bag he advocated the adoption OF
steam as a motive power n pre-
dicted a new era in naval warfare
Of big guns. Did he dream of a
gun that could shoot an hundred
miles?
HE advocated a naval school for
midshipmen, that they, might be in
structed in the higher duties Of
their profession and urged the use
Of regular textbooks. His new ideas
fairly startled old sea dogs. who
basked in the glories Of tradition
and regarded new things as revolu-
tionary. But the reforms that he
proposed delighted the thoughtful
and ambitious, and stimulated study
and exploration and science in the
navy.
Other Scientific Work
I'm 1S43 he read to a distinguish
ed audience in Washington. COM
posed Of the President and ENJOYS
and congress, a padm cmfwyp m
and congressman, a paper, The Gulf
Stream and Its Causes and later a
paper On the connection Of terres-
trial magnetism with the circulation
Of the atmosphere.
Merely to state the varied
achievements Of this master naval
scientist attests his many-sided SER
vice. In addition to his purely |
maritime discoveries and accom-
plishments. Senator Vest declared
the whole signal-service system of
this country originated with the
navy, and the man in whose brain
it first had existence was M. F.
Maury.' His system Of weather re-
ports has been extended so that on
land as well az on sea he was a
~benefactor. whose ideas have not