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See also:MATTHEW See also:FONTAINE See also:MAURY (1806-1873) , See also:American See also:naval officer and hydrographer, was See also:born near Fredericksburg in See also:Spottsylvania See also:county, See also:Virginia, on the 24th of See also:January 18o6 . He was educated at Harpeth See also:academy, and in 1825 entered the See also:navy as See also:midshipman, circumnavigating the globe in the " See also:Vincennes," during a cruise of four years (1826–183o) . In 1831 he was appointed See also:master of the See also:sloop " See also:Falmouth " on the Pacific station, and subsequently served in other vessels before returning See also:home in 18J4, when he married his See also:cousin, See also:Ann Herndon . In 1835–1836 he was actively engaged in producing for publication a See also:treatise on See also:navigation, a remarkable achievement at so See also:early a See also:stage in his career; he was at this See also:time made See also:lieutenant, and gazetted astronomer to a See also:South See also:Sea exploring expedition, but resigned this position and was appointed to the survey of south-ern harbours . In 1839 he met with an See also:accident which resulted in permanent lameness, and unfitted him for active service . In the same See also:year, however, he began to write a See also:series of articles on naval reform and other subjects, under the See also:title of Scraps from the Lucky-Bag, which attracted much See also:attention; and in 1841 he was placed in See also:charge of the See also:Depot of Charts and See also:Instruments, out of which See also:grew the See also:United States Naval See also:Observatory and the Hydrographic See also:Office . He laboured assiduously to obtain observations as to the winds and currents by distributing to captains of vessels specially prepared See also:log-books; and in the course of nine years he had collected a sufficient number of logs to make two See also:hundred See also:manuscript volumes, each with about two thousand five hundred days' observations . One result was to show the See also:necessity for combined See also:action on the See also:part of maritime nations in regard to ocean See also:meteorology . This led to an See also:international See also:conference at See also:Brussels in 18J3, which produced the greatest benefit to navigation as well as indirectly to meteorology . See also:Maury attempted to organize co-operative meteorological See also:work on See also:land, but the See also:government did not at this time take any steps in this direction . His oceanographical work, however, received recognition in all parts of the civilized See also:world, and in 1855 it was proposed in the See also:senate to remunerate him, but in the same year the Naval Retiring See also:Board, erected under an See also:act to promote the efficiency of the navy, placed him on the retired See also:list . This action aroused wide opposition, and in 1858 he was reinstated with the See also:rank of See also:commander as from 1855 . In 1853 Maury had published his Letters on the See also:Amazon and See also:Atlantic Slopes of South See also:America, and the most widely popular of his See also:works, the See also:Physical See also:Geography of the Sea, was published in See also:London in 1855, and in New See also:York in 1856; it was translated into several See also:European See also:languages . On the outbreak of the American See also:Civil See also:War in 1861, Maury threw in his See also:lot with the South, and became See also:head of See also:coast, See also:harbour and See also:river defences . He invented an electric See also:torpedo for harbour See also:defence, and in 1862 was ordered to See also:England to See also:purchase torpedo material, &c . Here he took active part in organizing a See also:petition for See also:peace to the American See also:people, which was unsuccessful . Afterwards he became imperial See also:commissioner of See also:emigration to the See also:emperor See also:Maximilian of See also:Mexico, and attempted to See also:form a Virginian See also:colony in that See also:country . Incidentally he introduced there the cultivation of See also:cinchona . The See also:scheme of colonization was abandoned by the emperor (1866), and Maury, who had lost nearly his all during the war, settled for a while in England, where he was presented with a testimonial raised by public subscription, and among other honours received the degree of LL.D. of See also:Cambridge University (1868) . In the same year, a See also:general See also:amnesty admitting of his return to America, he accepted the professorship of meteorology in the Virginia Military See also:Institute, and settled at See also:Lexington, Virginia, where he died on the 1st of See also:February 1873 . Among works published by Maury, in addition to those mentioned, are the papers contributed by him to the Astronomical Observations of the United States Observatory, See also:Letter concerning Lanes for Steamers See also:crossing the Atlantic (1855); Physical Geography (1864) and See also:Manual of Geography (1871) . In 1859 he began the publication of a series of Nautical Monographs . See See also:Diana See also:Fontaine Maury Corbin (his daughter), See also:Life of See also:Matthew Fontaine Maury (London, 1888) . |
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