Maury and His Family Reunited in London in 1868 After His Return from Mexico.
Mrs. J. R. Werth of Richmond, Virginia, a daughter of Maury (Mary Herndon Maury in the photograph) has kindly identified the group as follows: beginning with the lady standing on reader’s left, Eliza Hull Maury, daughter; Admiral M. H. Jansen, Netherlands Navy, a warm friend of the family; Lucy Minor Maury, daughter; Mary Herndon Maury, daughter; Matthew Fontaine Maury, Junior, son; Mrs. Diana Fontaine Maury Corbin, daughter. Commodore Maury is seated holding his granddaughter, Nannie Maury Corbin, while Mrs. Matthew Fontaine Maury is seated to reader’s right. Date of picture, 1868.
This letter probably occasioned no very great surprise to Maury, but he waited several weeks after receiving it before he replied, in part, as follows: “I read, in your letter of April 19th, fresh proofs of your Majesty’s confidence and friendly consideration; I am touched by them. I am grieved to learn that your Majesty should be compassed with difficulties so serious as must be those which made it necessary to abandon such a cherished policy as I know that of colonization to have been.... Colonization being suspended, I fear that my return to Mexico would tend rather to increase the embarrassments than to smooth any of the difficulties by which your Majesty is surrounded. This fear, my solicitude for the welfare of the Empress and yourself, and the deep concern I feel for your success in one of the noblest undertakings that ever animated the human breast, make me pause.... In stating the conclusion, I hope I may not be considered unmindful of obligations or insensible to kindness. Far from it. Proof that I recognize both in their highest sense is found in the fact that in homage to them I forego the high and honorable position so kindly offered me near the person of your Majesty in the service of your Empire.... That God may ever have your Majesties in His holy keeping is the constant prayer of your earnest well-wisher and humble friend, M. F. Maury”. Thus came to an end Maury’s attempt to found a “New Virginia” in Mexico.
Having declined Maximilian’s invitation to continue in his service, Maury began to cast about for some other way of earning money to support his family. The first thing that suggested itself to his mind was to make use of his new discoveries in the electric mine. Though the English engineer Holmes had carefully guarded the secrets embodied in these new ideas which had been intrusted to him by Maury, yet he had done nothing in their exploitation and a clear field was thus left for Maury to attempt to secure their adoption by the various European governments. He accordingly conceived the idea of opening a sort of school for instructing any representatives that foreign countries might send to him, for the fee of 500 pounds per country. This offer was made by him through a circular, which he sent out April 25, 1866 to various diplomats in London, recommending three representatives from each country. He was almost immediately invited by the French government to come to Paris to teach its representatives, for which instruction the sum of 25,000 francs was to be paid. Maury accepted this offer, and in the course of his lectures, given on May 21 and 28, 1866, he demonstrated the effectiveness of his electric mines on the River Seine at Saint Cloud in the presence of the Emperor Napoleon. This visit led to his being invited to become a French citizen, and his being offered a position in the Meteorological Observatory in Paris. His family was not willing for him to accept this position but preferred to return to the United States at the earliest opportunity, and he accordingly declined the offer.
In July, 1866 representatives from Sweden and Norway, and Holland came to London to be instructed. There is some evidence that Russia and England also sent representatives at this time. “I have a school under weigh”, humorously wrote Maury, “with Sweden and Norway as pupils—board and tuition 500 pounds. They will graduate in ‘sea mining’ this week. Monday the 16th, the school opens for the Dutch at 500 pounds. I have heard no more about turning Frenchman. But the King of Wurttemberg has been pestering me to keep the Prussians out of his pea-patch of a kingdom. ‘Barkis is willing’, but I can’t say whether anything will come out of it; I think not as the war looks like it is drawing to a close”.
The lectures which Maury gave in connection with the demonstrations of his mines gave an introductory sketch of all that his predecessors since the time of Priestly had done in this field, an account of all that had been accomplished by the South with this new weapon during the late war, and then in detail the results of his own experiments. As far as the submarine mine was concerned, he added nothing new to what he had set down in the agreement with Holmes which was drawn up by him just before leaving England near the close of the war. But as to their use on land, the following details appear for the first time among his papers: “After this hasty sketch, I come to electrical torpedoes for guarding mountain passes and roadways, etc., for the protection of strongholds and the defense of fortified positions. Shells cast for the purpose should be used, but in an emergency tin canisters, or any other perfectly water-tight cases, will answer. I am not aware that electricity was used by either of the belligerents in the late American war for springing mines on land.
“The cases for land-torpedoes should be shells cast expressly for the purpose. The thickness of the shell being from one-fourth to an inch, and even more, or less, according to the size and the probable handling in transportation.
“They should be spherical; only instead of a hole for the fuse, as in a hollow shot, they should have a neck like a bottle, with a cap to screw over—not in—the neck. The case should be charged through the neck, and the wires let in through two holes, counter-sunk, diametrically opposite, the counter-sinking being for the purpose of receiving pitch or other resinous matter to keep the water out. The fuse, being adjusted to the wires, should be held in its place by a string through the neck, while the wires are drawn out taut and sealed within and without. Having proved the fuse, first fill and then drive in a wooden peg. Then fill the space between it and the screw-cap with red lead, and screw down tight so as to make it water-tight. Now secure the tails of the wires so that they will not be chafed or bruised, and the mine is ready to be packed for transportation. They are generally to be used in stone fougasses, the wire being buried at convenient depths, and all marks of fougasses and trenches removed as completely as possible. Any number, not exceeding twenty-five or thirty, may be arranged in a single circuit for the ebonite; but if the magnetic exploder of Wheatstone be preferred, and the ground be perfectly dry, hundreds may be planted in a ladder-circuit, which you have seen handled.
“The operator may be at any distance from these mines when he explodes them, provided only he has established some mark or point which, on being reached by the enemy, should serve as his signal. The area of destruction of one fougasse, properly constructed, with a charge of twenty or twenty-five pounds of powder, may be assumed to be that of a circle seventy-five or eighty yards in diameter. Twenty mines would therefore serve for a mile. Several miles may be planted in a night, and the assailants may be enticed or invited out in the morning. Passes before an invading army may be mined in advance, and thus, if he cannot be destroyed, his progress may be so retarded by dummies or sham mines as almost literally to compel him to dig his way.