Maury, Matthew Fontaine

Maury, Matthew Fontaine, an American naval officer, astronomer, and hydrographer, was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, January 14, 1806. In 1825 he was appointed midshipman in the United States navy, and during a voyage round the world in the Vincennes commenced his well-known Navigation (1834), which was adopted as a text-book in the navy. After thirteen years' service he became lieutenant in 1837, but an accident two years later lamed him for life. He devoted himself to study and the promotion of naval reform, and in 1842 was appointed superintendent of the Hydrographical Office at Washington, and two years later of the observatory. Here he carried out a system of observations on winds and currents, which enabled him to write his Physical Geography of the Sea (1856), and to produce in 1844 his works on the Gulf Stream, Ocean Currents, and Great Circle Sailing. In 1855 he was promoted to the rank of commander, but resigned his commission on the secession of Virginia, became an officer of the Confederate navy, and as such was sent as commissioner to Europe. After the war he lived some time in Mexico, but finally accepted the chair of Physics in the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, where he died February 1, 1873. He was a member of the scientific societies of Paris, Berlin, Brussels, St Petersburg, and may be considered almost as the founder of a new and important science. There is a Life by his daughter (New York and London, 1888).