The Ely miner., 1931-07-10

Although others share with him the
title of Father of Annapolis" and
there were those who anticipated him
in urging a naval academy, it must
be admitted that his insistence was
largely responsible for the founding of
such an institution.
All this time Maury was trying to
get back to sea duty, but an unfortu-
nate accident in a stage coach which
made him a cripple for life prevented
his return to active duty. By this
time his scientific fame was so great
and his usefulness so evident that the
secretary of the navy, in order to take
full advantage of those qualities, made
him superintendent of the depot of
charts and instruments which later be-
came that institution of inestimable
value, the United States naval observ-
atory. There Maury went further in
to the study of astronomy, so closely
associated with navigation, and be-
came one Of the leading astronomers
of the period.
But this was only a minor part of
his work. Recalling his dismay when,
as sailing master of the Falmouth, he
had sought in vain for information
which would aid him in sailing that
vessel, he set about examining all of
the log books which had been tossed
aside as rubbish within a short time
after the voyages were completed. In
these he discovered a veritable gold
mine. By charting the courses of all
the vessels recorded there, he saw that
it would be possible to figure out the
prevailing winds and currents at each
season Of the year over any portion
of the high seas. Realizing that it
was too big job for one man he
sought aid from the higher authorities
but, as is so often the case with prof.
ects of immense Importance, he could
not communicate the extent of his Wis
ion to his superiors. So he went at
it alone and after five years of most
painstaking labor he published his
wind and Current Chart of the North
Atlantic"
To supplement this he issued an alb
stract log for navigators, made up Of
advice upon what he had already
learned, with blank pages in which
they were to make observations each
day. The filled-in blanks were to be
returned to Maury for compilation
of more sailing directions. To get the
cooperation of captains Of the various
ships, he told them that he could cut
the sailing time of some of the voy-
ages from ten to fifteen days, and thus
it was to their advantage to aid him
in making further studies.
Within year navigators had taken
out five thousand of his charts and
three years later he had manuscripts
recording over half million days
observations in every corner of the
globe. By 1853 his work had won
such worldwide fame that a naval
conference was called in Brussels, Bel
gium, to which naval experts from
many countries came to help work
out this marvellous new science, and
Maury returned to America laden with
honors and inspired to new endeavor.
He had shown the seamen of other ma
tions how to win In their race against
time. For instance, previous to Maui
rvs researches. the trip from New
York to San Francisco around Cape
Horn was voyage Of $50 days. Maui
ry first showed how to cut this to 133
days, then to no days and In 1851
when the famous Flying Cloud made
its trip 1t did it In exactly 80 days.
The value Of all this was immedi-
ately evident to all maritime nations.
Profiting by Maury's work. British
commerce was already saving ten mil
lion dollars year and his Sailing
Directions were becoming increasing
ly valuable as he added new data and
made new computations. One more
triumph was to be added to his career