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63-839: The school was renamed to the Maury School in 1925 to honor Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), a geographer , and oceanographer known as the “Pathfinder of the Seas.” Born on January 14, 1806, in Fredericksburg, Virginia , Maury joined the United States Navy in 1821 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1836. He served as superintendent of the Navy Department 's Depot of Charts and Instruments (the United States Naval Observatory ) from 1842 to 1855 and from 1858 to 1861. When

126-746: A commodore (often a title of courtesy ) in the Virginia Provisional Navy and a Commander in the Confederacy. Buildings on several college campuses are named in his honor. Maury Hall was the home of the Naval Science Department at the University of Virginia and headquarters of the university's Navy ROTC battalion until being renamed in 2022. The original building of the College of William & Mary Virginia Institute of Marine Science

189-512: A midshipman's warrant in the United States Navy. As a midshipman on board the frigate USS  Brandywine , he almost immediately began to study the seas and record methods of navigation. When a leg injury left him unfit for sea duty, Maury devoted his time to studying navigation, meteorology, winds, and currents. He became Superintendent of the Depot of Charts and Instruments, later renamed

252-586: A Superintendent's House on the Observatory grounds. Adams thus felt no constraint in regularly stopping by for a look through the facility's telescope. As a sailor, Maury noted numerous lessons that ship masters had learned about the effects of adverse winds and drift currents on the path of a ship. The captains recorded the lessons faithfully in their logbooks, which were then forgotten. At the Observatory, Maury uncovered an enormous collection of thousands of old ships' logs and charts in storage in trunks dating back to

315-411: A collection of all medals struck by Pope Pius IX during his pontificate, a book dedication and more from Father Angelo Secchi , who was a student of Maury from 1848 to 1849 in the United States Naval Observatory . The two remained lifelong friends. Other religious friends of Maury included James Hervey Otey , his former teacher who, before 1857, worked with Bishop Leonidas Polk on the construction of

378-666: A few years, nations owning three-fourths of the shipping of the world were sending their oceanographic observations to Maury at the Naval Observatory, where the information was evaluated and the results were given worldwide distribution. As its representative at the conference, the United States sent Maury. As a result of the Brussels Conference, many nations, including many traditional enemies, agreed to cooperate in sharing land and sea weather data using uniform standards. It

441-468: A land system of weather observations. Maury became convinced that adequate scientific knowledge of the sea could be obtained only through international cooperation. He proposed that the United States invite the maritime nations of the world to a conference to establish a "universal system" of meteorology, and he was the leading spirit of a pioneer scientific conference when it met in Brussels in 1853. Within

504-689: A lawful prize of the United States . The ship was documented as the U.S. merchant ship SS Georgia in New Bedford , Massachusetts, on 5 August 1865. She was reregistered in Canada in 1870. The property of the Quebec and Gulf Ports Company and still named SS Georgia , she was on a voyage from Halifax , Nova Scotia , to Portland , Maine , when she was wrecked without loss of life on the Northern Triangles ,

567-410: A naming commission created by federal law to reexamine Confederate-related names and symbols on military installations. James Madison University also has a Maury Hall, the university's first academic and administrative building. In the wake of the 2020 George Floyd protests , JMU student organizations called for renaming the building. On Monday, June 22, 2020, hearing the calls of students and alums,

630-478: A naval appointment through the influence of Tennessee Representative Sam Houston , a family friend, in 1825, at the age of 19. Maury joined the Navy as a midshipman on board the frigate Brandywine , which was carrying the elderly Marquis de La Fayette home to France following his famous 1824 visit to the United States . Almost immediately, Maury began to study the seas and to record methods of navigation . One of

693-441: A school after the 1972–1973 school year. In 1977, the building was converted for use as a studio space for local artists. The Arlington Arts Center , a non-profit organization, has operated the building since that time, offering art classes, educational programs, exhibitions, and studio space. The Arlington County Board designated the building to be a local historic district on April 7, 1984. The National Park Service listed

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756-642: A school for the Navy that would rival the Army's United States Military Academy . That reform was heavily pushed by Maury's "Scraps from the Lucky Bag" and other articles printed in the newspapers, bringing about many changes in the Navy, including his finally fulfilled dream of the creation of the United States Naval Academy . During its first 1848 meeting, he helped launch the American Association for

819-671: A warm surface current pushing into the Arctic, and logs of old whaling ships indicated that whales killed in the Atlantic bore harpoons from ships in the Pacific (and vice versa). The frequency of these occurrences seemed unlikely if the whales had traveled around Cape Horn . Lieutenant Maury published his Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic , which showed sailors how to use the ocean's currents and winds to their advantage, drastically reducing

882-590: Is named Maury Hall as well. Another Maury Hall housed the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and the Robotics and Control Engineering Department at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland . On February 17, 2023, the academy announced that it had renamed this building in honor of Jimmy Carter , the only Naval Academy graduate to become President of the United States. The change had been recommended by

945-781: The American Civil War started in 1861, Maury resigned from the United States Navy to accept a commission as a commander in the Confederate States Navy , and later became Secretary of the Navy for the Confederacy . After the Civil War ended, he lived in England. In 1868, he moved to Lexington, Virginia , where he served as a professor of meteorology at the Virginia Military Institute . The building ceased operating as

1008-1039: The American Civil War , Maury joined the Confederacy. Upon his resignation from the U.S. Navy, the Virginia governor appointed Maury commander of the Virginia Navy. When this was consolidated into the Confederate Navy, Maury was made a Commander in the Confederate States Navy and appointed as chief of the Naval Bureau of Coast, Harbor, and River Defense. In this role, Maury helped develop the first electrically controlled naval mine, which caused havoc for U.S. shipping. He'd had experience with transatlantic cable and electricity flowing through wires underwater when working with Cyrus West Field and Samuel Finley Breese Morse . The naval mines, called torpedoes at that time, were similar to present-day contact mines and were said by

1071-505: The Canary Islands , thence up to Cherbourg , France , arriving 28 October 1863. During this short cruise she captured nine prizes . While Georgia was undergoing repairs at Cherbourg in late January 1864, it was decided to shift her armament to CSS  Rappahannock . The transfer was never effected, however, and Georgia was moved to an anchorage 3 nautical miles (5.6 km; 3.5 mi) below Bordeaux , France. On 2 May 1864 she

1134-767: The Mariners' Museum property and is encircled by a walking trail. The Maury River , entirely in Rockbridge County, Virginia , near Virginia Military Institute (where Maury taught), also honors the scientist, as does Maury crater , on the Moon. Matthew Fontaine Maury High School in Norfolk, Virginia, is named after him. Matthew Maury Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia , was built in 1929. Nearby Arlington, Va., renamed its 1910 Clarendon Elementary to honor Maury in 1944; Since 1976,

1197-608: The Union Navy in 1864. The ship was built in 1862 as the fast merchantman Japan . She had a round stern, iron frame, fiddle-bow figurehead, short, thick funnel and full poop. Having an iron hull, she was clearly unsuited to long cruises without drydocking during a period when antifouling under-body coatings were yet unknown. Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch , a key Confederate procurement agent overseas, would have nothing to do with iron bottoms, but Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury settled for Japan because wood (which could be coppered)

1260-462: The United States Naval Observatory , in 1844. There, Maury studied thousands of ships' logs and charts. He published the Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic , which showed sailors how to use the ocean's currents and winds to their advantage, drastically reducing the length of ocean voyages. Maury's uniform system of recording oceanographic data was adopted by navies and merchant marines worldwide and

1323-755: The University of Tennessee . From statements that he made in letters, it appears that he preferred being close to General Robert E. Lee in Lexington, where Lee was president of Washington College. Maury served as a pallbearer for Lee. He also gave talks in Europe about cooperation on a weather bureau for land, just as he had charted the winds and predicted storms at sea many years before. He gave speeches until his last days when he collapsed while giving one. He went home after he recovered and told his wife Ann Hull Herndon-Maury, "I have come home to die." He died at home in Lexington at 12:40 pm on Saturday, February 1, 1873. He

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1386-562: The University of the South in Tennessee. While visiting there, Maury was convinced by his old teacher to give the "cornerstone speech." As a U.S. Navy officer, he was required to decline awards from foreign nations. Some were offered to Maury's wife, Ann Hull Herndon-Maury, who accepted them for her husband. Some have been placed at Virginia Military Institute or lent to the Smithsonian . He became

1449-589: The Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 1849, Maury spoke out on the need for a transcontinental railroad to join the Eastern United States to California . He recommended a southerly route with Memphis, Tennessee , as the eastern terminus, as it is equidistant from Lake Michigan and the Gulf of Mexico . He argued that a southerly route running through Texas would avoid winter snows and could open up commerce with

1512-523: The Confederacy. Maury traveled to England, Ireland, and France, acquiring and fitting out ships for the Confederacy and soliciting supplies. Through speeches and newspaper publications, Maury unsuccessfully called for European nations to intercede on behalf of the Confederacy and help end the American Civil War. Maury established relations for the Confederacy with Emperor Napoleon III of France and Archduke Maximilian of Austria , who, on April 10, 1864,

1575-566: The R/V Matthew F. Maury . The ship is used for oceanography research and student cruises. In March 2013, the U.S. Navy launched the oceanographic survey ship USNS Maury (T-AGS-66), in 2023 the ship was renamed USNS Marie Tharp . The Mariners' Lake , in Newport News, Virginia , had been named after Maury but had its name changed during the George Floyd protests . The lake is located on

1638-530: The Secretary of the Navy in 1865 "to have cost the Union more vessels than all other causes combined." In September 1862, Maury, partly because of his international reputation, and partly due to jealousy of superior officers who wanted him placed at some distance, was ordered on special service to England. There, he sought to purchase and fit ships for the Confederacy and persuade European powers to recognize and support

1701-562: The South, including those in Richmond, Virginia, Fletcher, North Carolina , Franklin, Tennessee , and several in Chancellorsville, Virginia . The Matthew Fontaine Maury Papers collection at the Library of Congress contains over 14,000 items. It documents Maury's extensive career and scientific endeavors, including correspondence, notebooks, lectures, and written speeches. On July 2, 2020,

1764-544: The USN 1854 Darien Exploration Expedition , and others. Their duty at the observatory was always temporary, and new men had to be trained repeatedly. Thus Lt. Maury was simultaneously employed with astronomical and nautical work, as well as constantly training new temporary men to assist in these works. As his reputation grew, the competition among young midshipmen to be assigned to work with him intensified. Thus, he always had able assistants. Maury advocated for naval reform, including

1827-463: The United States and then joining the Confederacy during the American Civil War. He was nicknamed "Pathfinder of the Seas" and is considered a founder of modern oceanography. He wrote extensively on the subject, and his book, The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855), was the first comprehensive work on oceanography to be published. In 1825, at 19, Maury obtained, through U.S. Representative Sam Houston ,

1890-734: The Virginia Military Institute library. Maury was initially buried in the Gilham family vault in Lexington's cemetery, across from Stonewall Jackson , until, after some delay, his remains were taken through Goshen Pass to Richmond, Virginia the following year He was reburied between Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. After decades of national and international work, Maury received fame and honors, including being knighted by several nations and given medals with precious gems as well as

1953-532: The advice of Robert E. Lee and other friends, he decided not to return to Virginia but sent a letter of surrender to U.S. naval forces in the Gulf of Mexico and headed for Mexico. There Maximilian , whom he had met in Europe, appointed him "Imperial Commissioner of Colonization". Maury and Maximilian planned to entice former Confederates to emigrate to Mexico, building Carlotta and New Virginia Colony for displaced Confederates and immigrants from other lands. Upon learning of

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2016-762: The building has been home to the Arlington Arts Center (rebranded in 2022 as the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington). There is a county historical marker outside the former school. Matthew Fontaine Maury School in Fredericksburg was built in 1919-1920 and closed in 1980. The building was converted into condominiums and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Adjoining it is Maury Stadium, built in 1935 and still used for local high school sports events. Numerous historical markers commemorate Maury throughout

2079-536: The building on the National Register of Historic Places on December 9, 1999. This article about a property in Arlington County, Virginia on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Matthew Fontaine Maury Matthew Fontaine Maury (January 14, 1806 – February 1, 1873) was an American oceanographer and naval officer, serving

2142-463: The experiences that piqued this interest was circumnavigating the globe on the USS ; Vincennes , his assigned ship and the first U.S. warship to travel around the world. Maury's seagoing days ended abruptly at the age of 33 after he broke his right leg in a stagecoach accident. After that he studied naval meteorology, navigation, and charting the winds and currents. He told his family that his work

2205-541: The information in his office and instituting a reporting system among the nation's shipmasters to gather further information on sea conditions and observations. The product of his work was international recognition and the publication in 1847 of Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic , causing the change of purpose and renaming of the depot to the United States Naval Observatory and Hydrographical Office in 1854. He held that position until his resignation in April 1861. Maury

2268-654: The institution of slavery has been termed "proslavery international". Maury, along with other politicians, newspaper editors, merchants, and United States government officials, envisioned a future for slavery that linked the United States, the Caribbean Sea, and the Amazon basin in Brazil. He believed the future of United States commerce lay in South America, colonized by white southerners and their enslaved people. There, Maury claimed,

2331-531: The length of voyages. His Sailing Directions and Physical Geography of the Seas and Its Meteorology remain standard. Maury's uniform system of recording synoptic oceanographic data was adopted by navies and merchant marines around the world and was used to develop charts for all the major trade routes. Maury's Naval Observatory team included midshipmen assigned to him: James Melville Gilliss , Lieutenants John Mercer Brooke , William Lewis Herndon , Lardner Gibbon , Isaac Strain , John "Jack" Minor Maury II of

2394-419: The mayor of Richmond, Levar Stoney ordered the removal of a statue of Maury erected in 1929 on Richmond's Monument Avenue. The mayor used his emergency powers to bypass a state-mandated review process, calling the statue a "severe, immediate and growing threat to public safety." CSS Georgia (1862) CSS Georgia was a screw steamer of the Confederate States Navy , acquired in 1863, and captured by

2457-533: The northern states of Mexico . Maury also advocated construction of a railroad across the Isthmus of Panama . For his scientific endeavors, Maury was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1852. Maury also called for an international sea and land weather service. Having charted the seas and currents, he worked on charting land weather forecasting. Congress refused to appropriate funds for

2520-489: The plan, Lee wrote Maury saying, "The thought of abandoning the country, and all that must be left in it, is abhorrent to my feelings, and I prefer to struggle for its restoration, and share its fate, rather than to give up all as lost." In the end, the plan did not attract the intended immigrants and Maximilian, facing increasing opposition in Mexico, ended it. Maury then returned to England in 1866 and found work there. In 1868 he

2583-412: The proposals, and Maury's proposal received little or no support in the United States, especially in the South, which sought to perpetuate the institution and the riches made off the yoke of slavery. By 1855, the proposal had failed. Brazil authorized free navigation to all nations in the Amazon in 1866, only when it was at war against Paraguay, when free navigation in the area had become necessary. Maury

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2646-496: The river highways of the Amazon valley". Brazil maintained legal enslavement but had prohibited the importation of newly enslaved people from Africa in 1850 under the pressure of the British. Maury proposed that moving people enslaved in the United States to Brazil would reduce or eliminate slavery over time in as many areas of the southern United States as possible and would end new enslavement for Brazil. Maury's primary concern, however,

2709-459: The slave trade that accompanied his scientific achievements. Maury staunchly opposed secession, but in 1860, he wrote letters to the governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland urging them to stop the momentum toward war. When Virginia declared secession in April 1861, Maury nonetheless resigned his commission in the U.S. Navy, choosing to fight against the North. With the outbreak of

2772-415: The start of the U.S. Navy. He pored over the documents, collecting information on winds, calms, and currents for all seas in all seasons. His dream was to put that information in the hands of all captains. Maury's work on ocean currents and investigations of the whaling industry led him to suspect that a warm-water, ice-free northern passage existed between the Atlantic and Pacific. He thought he detected

2835-642: The steamer Alar off Ushant , France , and took on guns, ordnance and other stores. On 9 April 1863 the Confederate flag was hoisted and she was placed in commission as CSS Georgia , Commander William Lewis Maury , CSN , in command. Her orders read to prey against United States shipping wherever found. Calling at Bahia , Brazil and at Trinidad , Georgia recrossed the Atlantic Ocean to Simon's Bay, Cape Colony , Africa , where she arrived on 16 August 1863. She sailed next to Santa Cruz , Tenerife , in

2898-524: The university president announced it would recommend to the JMU board of visitors to rename Maury Hall, along with Ashby Hall and Jackson Hall. Ships have been named in his honor, including various vessels named USS  Maury ; USS Commodore Maury (SP-656), a patrol vessel and minesweeper of World War I; and a World War II Liberty Ship . Additionally, Tidewater Community College, based in Norfolk, Virginia , owns

2961-484: The war. Following the war, Maury was eventually pardoned; he accepted a teaching position at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia . He died at the institute in 1873 after he had completed an exhausting state-to-state lecture tour on national and international weather forecasting on land. He had also completed his book, Geological Survey of Virginia , and a new series on geography for young people. Maury

3024-606: Was "work to be done by Africans with the American axe in his hand." In the 1850s, he studied a way to send Virginia's slaves to Brazil as a way to phase out slavery in the state gradually. Maury was aware of an 1853 survey of the Amazon region conducted by the Navy Lt. William Lewis Herndon. The 1853 expedition aimed to map the area for trade so that American traders could go "with their goods and chattels [including enslaved people] to settle and to trade goods from South American countries along

3087-523: Was a descendant of the Maury family, a prominent Virginia family of Huguenot ancestry that can be traced back to 15th-century France . His grandfather ( the Reverend James Maury ) was an inspiring teacher to a future U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson . Maury also had Dutch-American ancestry from the Minor family of early Virginia. He was born in 1806 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia , near Fredericksburg ; his parents were Richard Maury and Diane Minor Maury. The family moved to Franklin, Tennessee when he

3150-416: Was being superseded in Great Britain by the new metal; consequently wooden newbuilding contracts were not easy to buy up in British shipyards. The Confederate States Government purchased her at Dumbarton , Scotland , in March 1863. On 1 April 1863, she departed Greenock , reputedly bound for the East Indies and carrying a crew of fifty who had shipped for a voyage to Singapore . She rendezvoused with

3213-416: Was exhausted from traveling throughout the nation giving speeches promoting land meteorology. His eldest son, Major Richard Launcelot Maury, and son-in-law, Major Spottswood Wellford Corbin, attended him at the time. Maury asked his daughters and wife to leave the room. His last words, recorded verbatim, were "all's well," a nautical expression meaning calm conditions at sea. His body was placed on display in

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3276-408: Was five. He wanted to emulate the naval career of his older brother, Flag Lieutenant John Minor Maury , an officer in the U.S. Navy, who caught yellow fever after fighting pirates . As a result of John's painful death, Matthew's father, Richard, forbade him from joining the Navy. Maury strongly considered attending West Point to get a better education than the Navy could offer. Instead, he obtained

3339-428: Was inspired by Psalm 8, "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands... and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." As officer-in-charge of the United States Navy office in Washington, DC , called the "Depot of Charts and Instruments," the young lieutenant became a librarian of the many unorganized log books and records in 1842. On his initiative, he sought to improve seamanship by organizing

3402-416: Was neither the freedom of enslaved people nor the amelioration of slavery in Brazil, but rather an absolution for slaveholders of Virginia and other southern states. Maury wrote to his cousin, "Therefore I see in the slave territory of the Amazon the SAFETY VALVE of the Southern States." Maury wanted to open up the Amazon to free navigation in his plan. However, Emperor Pedro II 's government firmly rejected

3465-433: Was not an enslaver, but he did not actively oppose the institution of slavery. An article tying his legacy in oceanography to the slave trade suggested that Maury was ambivalent about slavery, seeing it as wrong but not intent on forcing others to free enslaved people. However, a recent article explaining the removal of his monument from Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, illustrated a proslavery stance through deep ties to

3528-407: Was offered the position as its first president but turned it down because of his age. He had previously been suggested as president of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia , in 1848 by Benjamin Blake Minor in his publication the Southern Literary Messenger . He considered becoming president of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, the University of Alabama , and

3591-490: Was one of the principal advocates for founding a national observatory and he appealed to a science enthusiast and former U.S. president, Representative John Quincy Adams , for the creation of what would eventually become the Naval Observatory. Maury occasionally hosted Adams, who enjoyed astronomy as an avocation, at the Naval Observatory. Concerned that Maury always had a long trek to and from his home on upper Pennsylvania Avenue, Adams introduced an appropriations bill that funded

3654-446: Was pardoned by the federal government and returned to the US, accepting a teaching position at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, holding the chair of physics. While in Lexington, he completed a physical survey of Virginia, which he documented in the book The Physical Geography of Virginia . He had once been a gold mining superintendent outside Fredericksburg and had studied geology intensely during that time, so he

3717-430: Was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico. At an early stage in the war, the Confederate States Congress assigned Maury and Francis H. Smith, a mathematics professor at the University of Virginia, to develop a system of weights and measures. Maury was in the West Indies on his way back to the Confederacy when he learned of its collapse. The war had brought ruin to many in Fredericksburg, where Maury's immediate family lived. On

3780-415: Was soon after the Brussels conference that Prussia, Spain, Sardinia, the Free City of Hamburg, the Republic of Bremen, Chile, Austria, Brazil, and others agreed to join the enterprise. The Pope established honorary flags of distinction for the ships of the Papal States, which could be awarded only to the vessels that filled out and sent to Maury in Washington, DC, the Maury abstract logs. Maury's stance on

3843-405: Was taken to Liverpool and sold on 1 June 1864 to a merchant of that city over the protest of Charles Francis Adams, Sr. , United States Minister to Great Britain. The steamer again put to sea on 11 August 1864, and on 15 August 1864 was captured by the United States Navy frigate USS  Niagara off Portugal . She was sent into Boston , Massachusetts , where she was condemned and sold as

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3906-437: Was used to develop charts for all the major trade routes. With the outbreak of the American Civil War , Maury, a Virginian , resigned his commission as a U.S. Navy commander and joined the Confederacy . He spent the war in the Southern United States , and Great Britain and France as a Confederate envoy. He helped the Confederacy acquire a ship, CSS  Georgia , while trying to convince several European powers to help stop

3969-493: Was well-equipped to write such a book. He aimed to assist war-torn Virginia in rebuilding by discovering and extracting minerals, improving farming, etc. He lectured extensively in the United States and abroad. He advocated for creating a state agricultural college as an adjunct to Virginia Military Institute. This led to the establishment at Blacksburg of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College , later renamed Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in 1872. Maury

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