{"id":585,"date":"2012-02-27T14:43:46","date_gmt":"2012-02-27T14:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/sealitsearchable\/?p=585"},"modified":"2022-07-01T17:49:26","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T17:49:26","slug":"maury-matthew-fontaine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/m\/maury-matthew-fontaine\/","title":{"rendered":"Maury, Matthew Fontaine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/files\/2012\/02\/Matthew_Fontaine_Maury2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2218\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/files\/2012\/02\/Matthew_Fontaine_Maury2.jpg\" alt=\"Matthew Fontaine Maury\" width=\"150\" height=\"180\"><\/a><em>by R. D. Madison&nbsp;<\/em>(2000)<\/p>\n<p>MAURY, MATTHEW FONTAINE (1806-1873). The 1855 publication of Matthew Fontaine Maury&#8217;s <em>Physical Geography of the Sea <\/em>inaugurated the distinct discipline of oceanography, but earlier essays under the pseudonym &#8220;Harry Bluff&#8221; helped shape reform of the antebellum U.S. Navy. Born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Maury pursued a career as an officer in the U.S. Navy that led to his appointment as superintendent of the National Observatory in Washington, D.C. Maury&#8217;s greatest contribution to literature was an oblique one: his research leading to the 1851 publication of his <em>Whale Chart and Explanations and Sailing Directions to Accompany the Wind and Current Charts<\/em> inspired Herman Melville&#8217;s chapter &#8220;The Chart&#8221; in <em>Moby- Dick<\/em> (1851).<\/p>\n<p>On the eve of the Civil War, Maury resigned from the U.S. Navy to enter the service of the Confederacy, first as a naval officer and later as a diplomat. In 1868 he returned to the United States to teach at the Virginia Military Institute, where he remained for the rest of his life. Charles Lee Lewis has written <em>Matthew Fontaine Maury: The Pathfinder of the Seas<\/em> (1927).<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\"><em> Maury&#8217;s nautical Monographs<\/em> (1806-1873)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 160px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/catalog.hathitrust.org\/Record\/008425064\">HathiTrust<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\"><em> Letter Concerning Lanes for Steamers crossing the Atlantic<\/em> (1855)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 160px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/catalog.hathitrust.org\/Record\/011568131\">HathiTrust<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\"><em>The Physical Geography of the Sea<\/em> (1855 ed.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 160px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=pKc9AAAAcAAJ&amp;dq\">Google Book Search<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\"><em>Explanations and Sailing Directions to Accompany the Wind and Current Charts<\/em> (1860)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 160px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=aI0_AAAAcAAJ\">Google Book Search<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/babel.hathitrust.org\/cgi\/pt?id=hvd.hwjw3a&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=7&amp;skin=2021\">HathiTrust<\/a><\/p>\n<p>keywords: white, male<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by R. D. Madison&nbsp;(2000) MAURY, MATTHEW FONTAINE (1806-1873). The 1855 publication of Matthew Fontaine Maury&#8217;s Physical Geography of the Sea inaugurated the distinct discipline of oceanography, but earlier essays under the pseudonym &#8220;Harry Bluff&#8221; helped shape reform of the antebellum <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/m\/maury-matthew-fontaine\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&amp;<\/span> text links<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25926],"tags":[53755,53777,53764],"class_list":["post-585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-m","tag-19th-century","tag-navy-coast-guard","tag-nonfiction"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6480,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions\/6480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}