Trotwood's Monthly, Vol. II, No. 3, June, 1906 — John Shaqi
Trotwood's Monthly, Vol. II, No. 3, June, 1906Various
History
Trotwood's Monthly, Vol. II, No. 3, June, 1906
Various
Agriculture -- Southern States -- Periodicals; Horses -- Periodicals; Southern States -- Periodicals
Maury now began to carry out his plan for meteorological co-operation
on land. To effect this he was obliged to travel much and deliver many
addresses. Out of these efforts grew the vast “Weather Bureau” of to-day.
As early as 1848 Maury had believed that a broad level plateau lay
under seas between Newfoundland and Ireland, and Congress dispatched
three vessels to perfect his discoveries, and to decide if it would be
practicable to lay the cable between Europe and the United States. He was
consulted by Cyrus W. Fields and others as to the kind of cable to be
used, the way and the time to lay it. At a dinner given in New York to
celebrate the first message across the Atlantic, Mr. Field rose and said:
“I am a man of few words. Maury furnished the brains, England the money
and I did the work.”
In 1858 Maury was advanced to the rank of Commodore, by special act
of Congress. Maury also originated the idea of water-marks and river
gauging along the Mississippi and its branches. In 1860 he had reached
the high tide of his worldly prosperity. He began to realize material
benefits from the fruits of his pen when the Civil War broke out. Mr.
Lincoln called for 75,000 troops. Virginia’s answer was secession and
a call upon her sons for support. Maury resigned his office and went
to Richmond. Nothing had been offered him by the Confederacy. He had
everything to lose, nothing to gain. He was a peace-loving man, a student
and philosopher; besides, he was greatly opposed to the war. But when
Virginia called he left his congenial pursuits, his achievements and
his discoveries for what he held to be his duty to his mother State.
When it became known abroad that he had severed his connection with the
United States, he was invited by France, Russia and Mexico to become
their guest, but he declined both. He entered the Confederate States
navy, with the rank of commodore and chief of the seacoast, harbor and
river defences of the South. He assisted in fitting out the Merrimac and
invented a formidable torpedo. In 1862 he established the Confederate
submarine battery service, at Richmond. In the same year he was ordered
to England to purchase torpedo material. After the war he was not allowed
to come home for several years.
In 1868 he, together with Tennyson and Max Muller, received the degree of
LL.D. from the University of Cambridge. In 1869 he accepted the chair of
physics in the V. M. I., at Lexington, Va. Here, surrounded by his family
and friends, he passed the remaining years of his life in peace and
rest. He died February 1, 1873.
I will conclude with two short extracts, the first from the Richmond
Dispatch, as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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