Matthew Fontaine Maury, the Pathfinder of the Seas

by Charles Lee Lewis

For a long time he had recognized the need for charts showing the winds and currents of the sea at different seasons; and it will be remembered that, when he was sailing master of the Falmouth, 1831–1833, he was first made to realize how little of the nautical experience of other sailors could be taken advantage of by one about to set out on a long voyage. On the way down to Rio in this ship he first conceived the idea of a wind and current chart; but he had no opportunity to make practical investigations into the meteorology of the sea until the year 1842, when he was placed in charge of the Depot of Charts and Instruments.

He had been in this office but a short time when he set about examining the old log books which had been stored away as so much rubbish by the Navy Department. By the middle of the year 1843, these investigations had proved so illuminating that he was able to write a paper, which was read before the National Institute, on “Blank Charts on Board Public Cruisers”. According to his plan, these charts were to have parallels and meridians showing the latitude and longitude laid down upon them, and the commanders of ships were to be requested to lay off on them the tracks of their vessels every day, and indicate as well the time of the year, the direction of the winds, the force and set of the currents, and all other phenomena having a bearing on the navigation of the seas on which they sailed. Sailing directions, Maury declared in this address, are now not a written branch of navigation but merely a matter of tradition among seamen. As to his contemplated chart, he boldly asserted that short passages are not due to luck and that “this chart proposes nothing less than to blaze a way through the winds of the sea by which the navigator may find the best paths at all seasons”.

Not having at that time made a name for himself as a scientist, Maury thought it wise to seek the support of the National Institute, and asked that a committee be appointed from its members to wait upon Secretary of the Navy Upshur and invite his coöperation in authorizing that these charts be kept on all public cruisers. Such coöperation was, after a fashion, granted, and Maury drew up a letter of instructions at the request of the Secretary. But as not much political capital was to be made of it, the matter ended with the issuing of a set of instructions to Commodore Biddle who was on the point of sailing for China in the Columbus. Maury then asked permission of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography to make a chart of the Atlantic American seaboard. He was ashamed, he wrote, of the meagerness of the contributions of the United States to the general fund of nautical science, and called attention to the fact that even the charts used by an American man-of-war in making her way up the Chesapeake Bay toward Washington had to be secured from the English Admiralty, and that, if it were not for the Nautical Almanac of England or some other nation, absent American ships could not find their way home and those in port could not lift their anchors and grope to sea with any certainty of finding their way back again.

At about the same time Maury began the compilation of a chart of the North Atlantic for the purpose of laying down upon it the tracks of vessels in all seasons of the year, with the currents, prevailing winds, temperature of the water, etc. At first, he had the intention of delineating the track of each vessel on the chart but he soon saw that it would be impossible to do so on the scale adopted (one inch to the degree), and he then resorted to the plan of tabulating the results only instead of marking the track. It was not until the autumn of 1847 that his researches, which had then extended over nearly five years, had reached the point where he could publish his first “Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic”. This chart was founded entirely upon information derived from the old discarded log books of the Navy Department, for he had not then secured much coöperation in the acquiring of new data. Maury compared his work in the “quarry of log books” to that of a sculptor, the single touch of whose chisel does but little; but finally like the completed piece of statuary the charts speak for themselves and stand out before the compiler “eloquent with facts which the philosopher had never dreamed were lurking near”.

Early in the year 1848 Maury issued what he called an “Abstract Log for the Use of American Navigators”. This was devised to secure the coöperation of navigators in gathering information for perfecting his charts. It contained but ten pages together with some blank forms, and was the very modest beginning of what he afterwards issued as “Sailing Directions”, which eventually grew to the enormous size of 1257 pages in two volumes in quarto. The purpose of the little pamphlet was to interpret the meaning and the significance of the wind and current chart which had recently been issued, and to furnish instructions to navigators for the proper keeping of the abstract log on their voyages. They were to enter in this log the latitude and longitude every day at noon; the hourly rate of the currents expressed in knots; the variation of the compass; the reading of the thermometer, in both air and water, at nine o’clock each morning; the state of the barometer just before, during, and just after a gale of wind with the changes and time of changes in the direction of the wind during the gale; careful entries as to the direction and force of the winds every eight hours; and other marine phenomena such as whales, flocks of birds, rains and fogs, etc., etc. When properly filled out, these logs were to be sent to Maury at the Observatory where the information would be tabulated. It was also suggested that tightly corked bottles containing the latitude and longitude, and the date be thrown overboard at stated times, and that such floating bottles be picked up when seen, and the place and time be carefully noted in the abstract log. Those who agreed to coöperate in these various ways were to receive free of cost a copy of the “Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic”.

Maury predicted confidently that, by following his directions, the average 55 days’ voyage from New York to Rio by the old route might be shortened by from 10 to 15 days. This prediction was fulfilled by the barque W. H. D. C. Wright of Baltimore, which early in 1848 went from the Capes of Virginia to Rio in 35 days and returned in 40 days, by following Maury’s directions. This created considerable interest in the new charts, and the number of those willing to coöperate in the new research on the sea constantly increased from year to year. Maury had long looked forward to the prospect of no longer being compelled to search through cartloads of manuscripts and dusty log books, kept in years gone by without system and with little or no regard to the facts which he wished to obtain from them, but of having as co-laborers a thousand or more vessels every year engaged in collecting exactly the information required so that it would come to his hands precisely in the form in which it was desired. In this he was not to be disappointed for by the close of the year 1848 he was able to write that his charts were eagerly sought by navigators and that some five or six thousand of them had been distributed during the year to American shipmasters. By no means all of these navigators kept their part of the agreement and sent in to Maury their abstract logs properly filled out; but enough data kept coming in to keep his staff of helpers constantly at work turning out his various charts. By 1851, he could write that more than one thousand ships in all the oceans were observing for him, and that enough material had been collected from abstract logs to make two hundred large manuscript volumes each averaging from two thousand to three thousand days’ observations.

These “Wind and Current Charts” included Track Charts, Trade Wind Charts, Pilot Charts, Thermal Charts, Storm and Rain Charts, and Whale Charts. The Track Charts showed the frequented parts of the ocean, the general character of the weather and wind, and the force and direction of the latter at different seasons of the year. The Trade Wind Charts gave the limits, extent, and general characteristics of the trade wind regions, together with their neighboring zones of calms. The Pilot Charts showed in every square of fifteen degrees the direction of the wind for sixteen points of the compass that would probably be found in that square during each month of the year, the results being based upon the number of times the wind was reported to have been from that direction in former years. The Thermal Charts recorded the temperature of the surface of the ocean wherever and whenever it had been observed, the different temperatures being distinguished by colors and symbols in such a manner that mere inspection of the chart showed the temperature for any month. The Storm and Rain Charts demonstrated in every square of five degrees the number of observations that had been made for each month, the number of days in which there had been rain, a calm, fog, lightning and thunder, or a storm and the quarter from which it had blown. The Whale Charts, finally, showed where whales were most hunted, in what years and months they had been most frequently found, whether in shoals or as stragglers, and whether sperm or right whales.

Though the coöperation which Maury enjoyed was an extensive one, he was still not satisfied, and as early as 1851 he conceived the idea of a universal system of meteorological observations on both land and sea. Through the advice of British scientists, he decided to confine his system, for the time being, only to the sea, though he was afterwards to regret such a curtailment of his original scheme. With the authority of Secretary of the Navy William A. Graham, to whom Maury was greatly indebted for very generous support in furthering his ambitious project, he set to work through diplomatic representatives of foreign countries at Washington to interest as many meteorologists as possible in the convening of an international meteorological conference. The United States also was asked to coöperate, through letters which Maury sent to the various Cabinet Members, heads of the Coast Survey, the Bureau of Engineers, and the Smithsonian Institute, and other scientists. Paris was at first considered to be a suitable place for the meeting; but eventually Brussels was chosen, and the following nations accepted the invitation to send representatives: Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.

Maury, as the representative of the United States, sailed from New York on July 23, 1853, by way of England. Upon landing at Liverpool, he was invited to address the merchants in the City Hall on the subject of the uniform plan of observation at sea, and the following month he spoke to the underwriters and shipowners of London at Lloyd’s on the same subject. These speeches produced a more cordial coöperation on the part of the British government which had previously been rather lukewarm in its attitude toward the undertaking.

The conference was convened at the residence of the Minister of the Interior in Brussels on August 23, 1853, and Jacques Adolphe Lambert Quetelet, Director of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, was made its president. Maury was requested to direct the proceedings of the conference, but he declined the honor. He was then asked by the president to state the purposes of the meeting, and after his short introductory address President Quetelet proposed that the conference pass a vote of thanks to Maury and record their gratitude for the “enlightened zeal and earnestness” he had displayed in the important and useful work which formed the subject of their deliberations. This, of course, was unanimously passed. The discussions went on daily with the greatest harmony, until the close of the conference on September 8. The results were the adoption of an abstract log for the use of the men-of-war of all nations and also one for all merchantmen to use in the system of coöperative observations. Full explanatory notes for the keeping of these logs in such a way as to cover all the phenomena of the ocean were agreed upon, and the hope was expressed that these abstract logs might enjoy in time of war the same immunity that was accorded to vessels engaged in discovery or other scientific research.