Matthew Fontaine Maury, the Pathfinder of the SeasLewis, Charles Lee
History
Matthew Fontaine Maury, the Pathfinder of the Seas
Lewis, Charles Lee
Maury, Matthew Fontaine, 1806-1873
In the United States Navy there has been considerable recognition of
Maury since his death,—particularly in recent years. His name is
placed at the top of all the charts issued by the Hydrographic Office,
in the following phrase: “Founded upon the researches made and the data
collected by Lieutenant M. F. Maury, U. S. Navy”. In 1918 a destroyer
in the U. S. Navy was called the _Maury_, and recently the Secretary
of the Navy has named the Naval Oceanographic Research in his honor.
At the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, the left wing of the
Academic Building bears the name of Maury Hall. This was originally the
navigation wing of the building, and, according to the Superintendent
of the Academy (Captain W. F. Fullam, U. S. Navy, in 1915), it was
named by his direction “Maury Hall” because of “Maury’s distinguished
and world-wide reputation in connection with meteorology and the
study of ocean currents, etc.” In 1919, the United Daughters of the
Confederacy established a prize at the Naval Academy, consisting of a
pair of marine binoculars, to be known as the “Maury Prize” and to be
awarded annually to that midshipman of the First Class who has shown
superior excellence in electrical engineering and physics. A portrait
of Maury by E. Sophonisba Hergesheimer was presented to the Naval
Academy by the Daughters of the Confederacy, Atlanta Chapter, Georgia
Division, and unveiled on November 20, 1923.[30]
One of the most recent memorials to Maury is as interesting as it
is appropriate. On December 22, 1925, the Martin Vas Isles (Ilhas
da Martin Vas) were visited by the Schooner _Blossom_ of the South
Atlantic Expedition which was sent out by the Cleveland Museum of
Natural History for the purpose of collecting specimens from the
volcanic islands of the South Atlantic. These islands, individually
unnamed and hitherto imperfectly charted, lie about eight hundred
miles off the coast of Brazil in the direction of Africa (latitude 20°
31′ S., longitude 28° 51′ W.). Captain George Finlay Simmons of the
_Blossom_ and his associates, impressed with the importance of the work
done by Maury, decided to give his name to one of the three islands of
the group which rises from the ocean like an impressive monument.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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