The following paper, on this great man’s life, character and achievements, to whom the world is so greatly indebted, was prepared by Rev. J. S. Dill, D. D., then a resident of this place, and pastor of the Baptist church, for this volume:
“On the 14th of January, 1806, only ten miles from the city of Fredericksburg, in the county of Spotsylvania, was born Matthew Fontaine Maury. He came of goodly stock, for there mingled in his nature, in equal parts, the sturdy religious life of the French Huguenots and the gallantry of the English Cavalier. On his mother’s side he belonged to the Minor family, of Virginia, while his name testifies that his paternal ancestors were among those who, from the persecutions of France, stretched their arms to the New World.
“When Maury was five years old, his parents emigrated to Tennessee and settled near the present town of Franklin. Thus, in the primeval forests of Tennessee, far away from the ocean’s tuneful chant, there grew up the lad, who was to become ‘The Pathfinder of the Seas.’
“The early educational advantages of young Maury were but scant. An accident, disqualifying him for farm service, gave him his best opportunity at an academy, and this he did not fail to use. Maury looked to the army for a profession, but his parents denied him. When, without their knowledge, he then secured his appointment to the navy, they again objected, and he left home without his father’s blessing. In 1825, an inland lad of nineteen years, Maury was assigned to duty as a midshipman on the Brandywine. It became evident that he had resolved to master his profession, and his promotion was rapid. In 1831 he was appointed master of the sloop of war Falmouth, which was ordered to Pacific waters. Diligently he sought information as to the best track for his vessel. Finding no reliable chart for his guidance, he realized the need of such help and his mind began at once to grapple with that problem, the solution of which afterwards immortalized him.”
WONDERFUL WORKS ON NAVIGATION.
“At home for a time in 1834, he was married to Miss Ann Herndon, of Fredericksburg, and from this time on we find much of his family life woven into the history of our city. On Charlotte street, between Princess Ann and Prince Edward, still stands the house[90] where he lived and his children were born. At this time he published his first book—a ‘Treatise on Navigation’—which for many years, even after the Civil war, was made a text book in the naval academy at Annapolis. His pen now became active in newspaper articles that startled the country, and there even arose a sentiment to elevate him to the portfolio of Secretary of the Navy.
“In the fall of 1839, by the upsetting of the stage in which he was travelling, his knee was severely fractured. But this untoward accident, under the guiding hand of God, put him into the very position in which he was to perform his life-work. His lame leg being unseaworthy, he was placed in charge of the ‘Depot of Charts and Instruments,’ at Washington. Here he grasped his great opportunity. Here, at the capital of the nation, he wrought for twenty years, and these two decades, from 1841 to 1861, mark the high tide of his service to the world.
“At Washington Maury found the vast accumulation of the ‘log books’ of the United States warships, stored away as mere rubbish. This he utilized as valuable data. He also set in operation plans for still more complete and accurate collections of all kinds of hydrographic and meteorologic observations. With all this before him, with pains-taking toil, he prepared his wonderful ‘charts and sailing directions.’ His work took ultimate form in a series of six ‘charts’ and eight large folio volumes of ‘sailing directions,’ and these comprehended all waters, in every clime, where fly the white sails of civilized commerce.
“The charts exhibit, with wonderful accuracy, the winds and currents, their force and direction, at different seasons, the temperature of the surface waters, the calm belts and trade winds, the rains and the storms. The eight volumes of ‘sailing directions,’ are brim full of the most valuable nautical information, and are perfect treasures to the intelligent seaman. This effected a revolution in the art of navigation. The practical result was that the most difficult of all sea voyages—that from New York to San Francisco, around Cape Horn—has been shortened by forty days; and it has been estimated, that in shortening the time and lessening the dangers of sea voyages, there has been a saving to the world’s commerce of not less than $40,000,000 annually.
“In writing about these sea routes he has mapped out, Maury has this to say: ‘So to shape the course on voyages as to make the most of winds and currents at sea, is the perfection of the navigator’s art. How the winds blow and the currents flow along this route or that, is no longer matter of opinion or speculation. The wind and the weather, daily encountered by hundreds, who have sailed the same voyage before him, have been tabulated for the mariner; nay, his path has been literally blazed for him on the sea; mile posts have been set upon the waves, and finger-boards planted and time-tables furnished for the trackless waste.’