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See also: American See also: naval officer and hydrographer, was See also: born near Fredericksburg in See also: Spottsylvania county, 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 master of the See also: sloop " See also: Falmouth " on the Pacific station, and subsequently served in other vessels before returning 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 navigation, a remarkable achievement at so early a 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 accident which resulted in permanent lameness, and unfitted him for active service
.
In the same See also: year, however, he began to write a series of articles on naval reform and other subjects, under the 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 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 Office
.
He laboured assiduously to obtain observations as to the winds and currents by distributing to captains of vessels specially prepared 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 meteorology
.
This led to an See also: international See also: conference at Brussels in 18J3, which produced the greatest benefit to navigation as well as indirectly to meteorology
.
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 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 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 War in 1861, Maury threw in his See also: lot with the South, and became See also: head of See also: coast, harbour and See also: river defences
.
He invented an electric See also: torpedo for harbour 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 petition for See also: peace to the American See also: people, which was unsuccessful
.
Afterwards he became imperial See also: commissioner of emigration to the emperor See also: Maximilian of Mexico, and attempted to See also: form a Virginian colony in that country
.
Incidentally he introduced there the cultivation of See also: cinchona
.
The 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 Cambridge University (1868)
.
In the same year, a general amnesty admitting of his return to America, he accepted the professorship of meteorology in the Virginia Military 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, 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 Fontaine Maury Corbin (his daughter), See also: Life of See also: Matthew Fontaine Maury (London, 1888)
.
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