his latitude and longitude and the day of the month and year. He was to pick up all such bottles found floating, note latitude and longitude of place found, and day of month and year in file abstract log, and forward all to the Naval Observatory. By this means Lieut. Maury was furnished with materials for the construction of his Wind and Current Charts, consisting of many millions of observations on the force and direction of the winds, the set of the currents of the sea, and the height of the barometer. In the space of eight years Lieut. Maury thus collected a sufficient number of logs to make 200 Volumes of these observations, of 2,500 days each.
In this heavy work he was materially assisted by the willing hands of many junior officers of the Navy, whom he inspired with his own enthusiasm.[1] With their aid the observations were tabulated. They were then discussed by Lieutenant Maury, and yielded, for the guidance of all mariners, the celebrated Wind and Current Charts.
With the assistance of these observations, he also compiled two quatro volumes of Sailing Directions of which eight editions have been published.
The value of these labors was so fully appreciated by the Government of the United States, that, in January 1855 it was proposed in the Senate that a suitable remuneration should be made to Lieutenant Maury. Mr. Mallory made the following report to the Committee to whom this subject was referred:—
- ↑ Wm. Leigh, Wm. B. Whiting, Wm. B. Benedict, Wm. Flye, Lardner Gibbon, A. C. Jackson, A. A. Sunnes, D. B. Ridgeley, R. Forest, W. K. Gardner, J. M. Matthews, J. C. Dekroft, T. S. Fellebrown, John M. Brooke, J. D. Johnson, B. M. Dove, J. Humphries, J. M. Clity, J. C. Beaumont, E. C. Winder, C. H. Wells, G. P. Welsh, G. Minor, H. M. Harrison, K. H. Wyman, R. Aulick, R. D. Minor, J. J. Guthrie, O. C. Badger, D. A. Forrest, H. R. Davenport, N. H. Van Zandt, W. B. Fitzgerald, J. Young, G. N. Morris, Wm. Lewis Herndon, Wm. R. Taylor, Wm. M. Ball, J. J. Henson, C. E. Flemming, Wm. G. Templer, T. B. Wainwright, W. W. Roberts, W. H. Murdaugh, &c.
