Father of Oceanography

 

Statue of Matthew Fontaine Maury. Those holding up the globe represent all those who perished on the seas before the Sailing charts were produced under Maury's command of the National Observatory. Maury is seated in civilian dress, his right hand on the Bible, his left hand on sailing charts he produced. The inscription underneath reads: Pathfinder of the Seas.

Article by Patrick Prescott

Anne the Vegan posted an article about why the Confederate statues were taken down in Richmond, Va. She mentioned that they all looked alike glorifying Generals like Lee, Jackson and others. All on horses in full uniform. She has good arguments for why this was necessary, and I don't disagree up to a point. 

 I responded that the Mayor of Richmond removed a statue of former confederate, who was not a General, was not erected in the 1950's by the daughters of the Confederacy, not on a horse and though a Naval Commander his statue was not in uniform. The statue was erected in 1929 funded by his grandchildren.

In her reply, Anne the Vegan agreed with my concerns.

On July 2, 2020, the mayor of Richmond 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."

(Wikipedia)

Matthew Fontain Maury was a scientist. He never owned a slave. He was given command of the National Observatory in District of Columbia where he started compiling over a hundred years of ships logs from all Naval ships that were molding and gathering dust using them to start compiling all the data, they contained to create sailing charts. In 1848 when the first charts were released not to just U.S. Naval ships, but all sailing ships for free, if those ships merchant and military if they would fill out the forms that came with them and return them to the Observatory to keep the charts current.

These are the accomplishments of Matthew Fontaine Maury. 

 1. Father of Oceanography.

2. Father of Meteorology.

3. Father of Physical Geography.

4. Compiled the first comprehensive study of the ocean currents, wind, weather, temperature, animal and plant life, depths; the Gulf Stream; the effects of currents on weather.

5. Created the first scientifically detailed charts of all the world’s oceans and wind currents used by all military and merchant shipping from their introduction in 1848.

6. His study of the Atlantic Ocean’s depth made the telegraph cable connecting the United States with Europe possible.

7. In the 1830’s his articles in magazines criticizing certain problems in the Navy led to Congress to create the Naval Academy.

8. He published the Physical Geography of the Sea (1855). A textbook translated into numerous languages and used by most navies of the world in the 19th century. It was used at Annapolis until the 1920’s.

9. By 1858 Maury had anywhere from 137,500 to 186,000 (the numbers varied by source) vessels from most maritime countries gathering data to record weather. This created the largest fleet to act in concert in history. It was the first time the United States led in a branch of science.

10. He revolutionized naval defenses by perfecting floating mines and electric torpedo still in use today.

Why would a statue of a man with these accomplishments be a "severe, immediate and growing threat to public safety?"

This prompted me to write a fictionalized novel, there are plenty of biographies one more is not needed.

Patrick Prescott is a retired public-school teacher and author of: Optimus: Praetorian Guard, I Maury: The Life and Times of a Rebel, Human Sacrifices, The Fan Plan Tribology, Three Medieval Battles and others in e-books and paperbacks on Amazon.com.