Slotten, H.R. In January 1851, Maurys Virginia cousin Mary B. Blackford wrote to him about his proposal to bring American slavery to Brazil, declaring, my heart sickened, yes! 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 the length of voyages. [3], causing the change of purpose and renaming of the depot to the United States Naval Observatory and Hydrographical Office in 1854. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 609 pp. Manuscript drawing, Engineer W. G. Atkinson, "General Geological. He was a Union man, and not a friend to slavery. [25] James Madison University also has a Maury Hall, the university's first academic and administrative building. Maury returned to the United States only in 1868, after Maximilians regime collapsed and after enough other Confederate officers received paroles for their treason that he felt safe to do so (Majewski and Wahlstrom, 2012). Maurys series of Pilot Charts show recorded prevailing wind patterns by compass direction and month for every 5 square of the ocean. Her research focuses on the historical intersection of technology and the ocean sciences, and specifically the role of research vessels and the cultures and practices surrounding their use from the mid-19th century to the present. He was among the first to systematically collect and compare things like temperature and current information on a near-global scale. Co., 1915, New York, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, name changed during the George Floyd protests, National Institute for the Promotion of Science, Wikisource:Popular Science Monthly/Volume 37/July 1890/Sketch of Matthew Fontaine Maury, "This Vast Southern Empire Matthew Karp", "What did Matthew Fontaine Maury ever do to deserve his removal from Monument Avenue? There, Maury claimed, was "work to be done by Africans with the American axe in his hand. 20850-6252, USA, Tel: (1) 301-251-7708, E-mail: [emailprotected], Send comments about this site to [emailprotected], 1 Research Court, Suite 450-117, Rockville, MD, 20850-6252, USA, https://harborlab.org/2015/02/05/african-americans-in-marine-sciences/, https://marinemadness.blog/2020/06/19/the-black-lives-of-marine-biology/, https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/01/politics/richmond-stonewall-jackson-confederate-statues-removed/, https://www.pilotonline.com/news/education/vp-nw-norfolk-confederate-school-names-20200617-gjvsizkbavesvc5g2y4e3rdhoy-story.html. Maury asked his daughters and wife to leave the room. 3 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. 2018. Maury's primary concern, however, 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. 1766), Major, Tennessee state legislator, This page was last edited on 17 July 2023, at 13:57. Please read our Comment & Posting Policy. 2015. Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873) 1806, Jan. 14. While true, this ignores the vigorous and consistent efforts he made to support and extend the institution of slavery. Indeed, geographers (particularly those specializing in cartography) In harnessing and analyzing thousands of scientific observations from around the world, the results of his work revolutionized our understanding of oceanography, meteorology, and marine navigation. [5] It 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. But D. Pedro II's government deeply . 1988. Maury became convinced that adequate scientific knowledge of the sea could be obtained only through international cooperation. That distinction is offered in defense of retaining the name Maury Hall for the building at USNA, or for renaming it Lt. Maurys scientific efforts, though international in their aims, were always intended to further the commercial agenda of the United States as a global imperial power. Upon learning of 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. Maury's private letters are readily available but it appears these key sources were never consulted. Donegan, D. 2020. Matthew Fontaine Maury (January 14, 1806 - February 1, 1873) was an American oceanographer and naval officer, serving the United States and then joining the Confederacy during the American Civil War. ", He died at home in Lexington at 12:40pm on Saturday, February 1, 1873. ents a more nuanced view; although his Maury's efforts to expand the slave ocean circulation model may be wrong, nation outlasted his service in the historians today recognize that Maury's US Navy. https://web.whoi.edu/big/black-history-month-blog-series-2020-highlighting-achievements-of-black-oceanographers/. 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, Fletcher Type Marker Subjects Removed Monuments Historic Science and Technology Figures Civil War, 1861-1865 City Fletcher County Henderson Description A series of markers comprised the "Open-Air Westminster Abbey of the South." Each monument consisted of a large granite mountain boulder and a bronze plaque. 2008. Having identified Maury as sharing their desire to explain the ocean-atmosphere system, oceanographersas naval officers before themalso found in him a role model for young scientists, and knowing his personal story of struggle and success only made this a better fit. The frequency of these occurrences seemed unlikely if the whales had traveled around Cape Horn.[6]. Maury High and two other Norfolk schools named for Confederates could be renamed. Caskie, J.A. Photo credit: Adam H. Domby. [13] However, a recent article explaining the removal of his monument from Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, illustrated a proslavery stance through deep ties to the slave trade that accompanied his scientific achievements. Before and after his resignation from the United States Navy to join the Confederacy during the American Civil War, Maury worked for the perpetuation and expansion of race-based slavery. Matthew Fontaine Maury. (1966). He was thus easy to rehabilitate with a Lost Cause reinterpretation of his resignation as a courageous and honorable act of conscience. Marine Madness, June 19, https://marinemadness.blog/2020/06/19/the-black-lives-of-marine-biology/. After Maurys death in 1873, his children initiated his rehabilitation, beginning with a hagiographic biography by his daughter Diana Fontaine Maury Corbin (1888). When a leg injury left him unfit for sea duty, Maury devoted his time to studying navigation, meteorology, winds, and currents. Always concerned about the lack of formal education for naval officers, Maury turned to science as a career path after a leg injury ended his hopes of command at sea. The spaces in between: Science, ocean, empire. 2005. Harbor Lab, February 5, https://harborlab.org/2015/02/05/african-americans-in-marine-sciences/. In 1861, the pioneering ocean researcher and former superintendent of the U.S. 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 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. Every ship a floating observatory: Matthew Fontaine Maury and the acquisition of knowledge at sea. Armistice Day celebration to pay tribute to Pathfinder of the Seas. Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 10, pp. Baard, E. 2015. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. Following his brother into the United States Navy, he joined the good ship "Brandywine" as a midshipman, wanting to learn quickly all about the sea. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 526 pp. Corbin in her 1888 publication of the "Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury" stated, "I am not in possession at present of the information necessary to speak of a canal by the Nicaraguan route, although it offers advantages which are very inviting. [7], For his scientific endeavors, Maury was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1852.[8]. 2015. Even some among Maurys own large but tightly knit Southern family recognized slavery as a moral wrong. Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Dont Know about the Ocean. By July 2, Maury, too, was gone (Manzanares, 2020). With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Maury joined the Confederacy. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to US Coast Survey vs. He advocated for creating a state agricultural college as an adjunct to Virginia Military Institute. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution campus has a Maury Lane. 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. Baker, J. Particularly in the post-Manhattan Project world, ethics has become an increasingly important part of science. He aimed to assist war-torn Virginia in rebuilding by discovering and extracting minerals, improving farming, etc. There Maximilian, whom he had met in Europe, appointed him "Imperial Commissioner of Colonization". Historical figures, American Civil War Experience Matthew Fontaine Maury Matthew Fontaine Maury gained fame before the American Civil War as an officer in the United States Navy with an intense interest in oceanography. 9 Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon .. Outdoor curiosities: Matthew Fontaine Maury statue. Dixies Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture. https://www.wdbj7.com/content/news/JMU-students-challenge-university-to-rename-buildings-named-after-Confederate-leaders-571139691.html? What to do about the Naval Academys Confederate connections? Marcus, A., and W. Woodward. Charles Lee Lewis, associate professor of the, CERVO, A. L.; BUENO, C. History of Brazilian Foreign Politics. JMU students challenge university to rename buildings named after Confederate leaders. Dick, S.J. His Sailing Directions and Physical Geography of the Seas and Its Meteorology remain standard. The Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia, provides a thoughtful example for dealing with Maurys legacy. Hill and Wang, New York, 339 pp. Over the course of his career, Maury would produce maps, charts, and inventive diagrams that conveyed his new insights on ocean sciences. However, historians have long recognized that science is never neutral; recently, science historian Naomi Oreskes used ocean science as a case study to show how apparently objective science in fact reflects the goals and priorities of both scientists and their patrons (Oreskes, 2020). 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. Comment and Posting Policy. Matthew Fontaine Maury, Father of Oceanography: A Biography, 18061873. Minorities in marine biology: The dearth of Black professors. He was also responsible for the first ocean-basin scale bathymetric chart, included in the fifth edition of his Sailing Directions (1853, Plate XIV), and the first sediment samples from the Atlantic seafloor (Rozwadowski, 2005; Hardy, 2016a). Matthew Fontaine Maury was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, 14 January 1806 to Richard Maury (1766-1843) and Diana Minor Maury (1768-1843). Richmond mayor invokes emergency powers to remove Confederate statues from city. 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 the river highways of the Amazon valley". [37] Matthew Fontaine Maury School in Fredericksburg was built in 1919-1920 and closed in 1980. Domby, A.H. 2020. Early Pictorial Maps of Asia and Europe from the Hauslab-Liechtenstein Collection, The Secret Maps of World War II Admiral Morton L. Deyo, Series: Imaginary Maps in Literature and Beyond. Im named after him. 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. He was nicknamed "Pathfinder of the Seas" and is considered a founder of modern oceanography. Maury was in the West Indies on his way back to the Confederacy when he learned of its collapse. [20] 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. [17] When Virginia declared secession in April 1861, Maury nonetheless resigned his commission in the U.S. Navy, choosing to fight against the North. Confederate Naval Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury was lionized as the "Pathfinder of the Seas" for his work in oceanography along Richmond's Monument Avenue for decades until his statue came down Thursday. He became Superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory and head of the Depot of Charts and Instruments. "[12] 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. Oceanography: An Invitation to Marine Science, 9th ed. 2015. It documents Maury's extensive career and scientific endeavors, including correspondence, notebooks, lectures, and written speeches. The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859. Following the war, Maury was eventually pardoned; he accepted a teaching position at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. Science in Nineteenth-Century America: A Documentary History. On 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. Nevertheless, in declining to fight against his native Virginia, Maury resigned his post and joined the Confederate Navy, initially to direct coastal and river defenses and develop naval mine technologies to use against the Union. 2012. However, more recent scholarship presents a more nuanced view; although his ocean circulation model may be wrong, historians today recognize that Maurys practice of science was in fact, typical, and representative, of his time and his location in Washington, DC (Hardy, 2016b, p. 404). 2020. There, Maury studied thousands of ships' logs and charts. In todays textbooks, Maury is celebrated as the first true oceanographer (Sverdrup etal., 2008, p. 12) and perhaps the first person for whom oceanography was a full time occupation (Garrison and Ellis, 2015, p. 43). The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. When he was 12 years old, young Matthew climbed high up in a tree but then fell 45 feet to the ground. Deep Sea News, October 1, http://www.deepseanews.com/2010/10/minorities-in-marine-biology-the-dearth-of-black-professors/. 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. His powerful visual representations of oceanic phenomena (such as his wind and current charts and whale charts) attracted international attention and enabled mariners to navigate more swiftly and safely (Dick, 2003; Burnett, 2005; Rozwadowski, 2005; Achbari, 2015; Smith, 2018). [12] He believed the future of United States commerce lay in South America, colonized by white southerners and their enslaved people. Isis 106(2):257282, https://doi.org/10.1086/682020. This highly detailed chart is colored to show regions of trade winds and doldrums. If the material is not included in the articles Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission directly from the license holder to reproduce the material. 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. https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/06/11/naval-academy-board-chair-calls-to-remove-confederate-names-from-buildings/, http://www.deepseanews.com/2010/10/minorities-in-marine-biology-the-dearth-of-black-professors/, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Richard Launcelot Maury, a Confederate Colonel who moved to Mexico after the American Civil War; he was the son of Matthew Fontaine Maury who developed the idea for the New Virginia Colony. Images, animations, videos, or other third-party material used in articles are included in the Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. 2020. Adjoining it is Maury Stadium, built in 1935 and still used for local high school sports events. Richmond Times-Dispatch, https://www.richmond.com/news/local/statue-of-jefferson-davis-torn-down-on-monument-avenue/article_64865aee-76bc-54e1-8e90-2fa749f8877b.html. 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. Cengage Learning, Boston, 640 pp. Of this group, Maury was the only one who was not a general or president and the only one whose monument celebrated his pre-Confederacy scientific contributions rather than his wartime service (Springston, 2019). [19] 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. He spent the war in the Southern United States, and Great Britain and France as a Confederate envoy. New preface edition, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 280 pp. Achbari, A. Matthew Fontaine Maury was born in 1806 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. In contemplating what to do with things that celebrate Maury or his science, we might reflect on the reasons institutions and individuals look to history. His efforts resulted in an expansive series of charts that not only shortened routes for mariners but also represented winds, currents, depths, temperatures, and even biological information in synoptic format. Following the end of the war, Maury remained abroad for several years before taking a professorship at the Virginia Military Institute where he would teach until his death in 1873. Maury advocated for naval reform, including a school for the Navy that would rival the Army's United States Military Academy. July 2, 2020 at 3:55 p.m. EDT. He'd had experience with transatlantic cable and electricity flowing through wires underwater when working with Cyrus West Field and Samuel Finley Breese Morse. A statue of Matthew Fontaine Maury on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, was graffitied in mid-June 2020. A flurry of biographies appeared in the years immediately surrounding the statues installation. He was nicknamed "Pathfinder of the Seas" and is considered a founder of modern oceanography. American Practical Navigator: an Epitome of Navigation. Matthew Fontaine Maury known as the "Scientist of the Seas" for contributions to ocean navigation improved commercial routes using collected data on surface currents and winds Published the first textbook for modern oceanography in 1855: The Physical Geography of the Sea Knowledge of seasonal and geographic changes aided captains in their cross-Atlantic journeys. 113134 in Tropical Visions in an Age of Empire. Matthew Fontaine Maury statue removed on Richmonds Monument Avenue. Sverdrup, K.A., and E.V. 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."[42]. The 1859 edition of his Physical Geography of the Sea had even marked the very first use of the English word oceanography (Oceanography, n.d.). Matthew Fontaine Maury simply couldn't give up the fight for slavery. Oceanography. Karp, M.J. 2016. A Virginian transplanted at a young age to Tennessee, Maury joined the navy after hearing an older brothers sea stories. A large theoretical literature has shown how various facets of geography helped nation-states appear as a "natural" part of the inevitable march of progress. Maury's seagoing days ended abruptly at the age of 33 after he broke his right leg in a stagecoach accident. Barbee, M. 2012. CNN Politics, https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/01/politics/richmond-stonewall-jackson-confederate-statues-removed/. A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury. [13], Upon his resignation from the U.S. Navy, the Virginia governor appointed Maury commander of the Virginia Navy. Mathew Fontaine Maury did not come back from France after the civil war as he was tried in a federal court for treason, without representation found guilty. Matthew Fontaine Maury: The Father of Oceanography BY JONATHAN K. CORRADO, PH.D., P. E. * | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2022 See above the first printed map of oceanic bathymetry, published by Matthew Fontaine Maury in Explanations with data from USS Dolphin (1836).1 The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory. Share. Maury traveled to England, Ireland, and France, acquiring and fitting out ships for the Confederacy and soliciting supplies. He recommended a southerly route with Memphis, Tennessee, as the eastern terminus, as it is equidistant from Lake Michigan and the Gulf of Mexico. Proceedings of the US Naval Institute, June 2020. Matthew Fontaine Maurys Sea of Fire: Hydrography, biogeography, and providence in the tropics. Matthew Fontaine Maury has been hailed as, among other names, the "Scientist of the Seas" for his contributions to understanding ocean navigation in the mid-19th century. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. [10], Maury's stance on the institution of slavery has been termed "proslavery international". Maury started a campaign to force Brazilian Government to open up navigation in the Amazon river and to oblige it to receive the American colonizers and American Trade. responsible for everything that you post. While the Richmond statue of Maury is gone, other memorials to him remain under discussion (Gregory, 2020; WHSV, 2020; Witte, 2020). University of California Press, Berkeley, 248 pp. In 1825, he received a midshipman's warrant and joined the United States navy. However, Emperor Pedro II's government firmly rejected 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. Grady, J. Matthew Fontaine Maury and the evolution of Southern memory. Maury 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. The Southern Exodus to Mexico: Migration Across the Borderlands After the American Civil War. The Gulf Stream: A Physical and Dynamical Description, 2d ed. Maryland, home state of the US Naval Academy (USNA), had been on the border during the Civil War and, in the throes of the Lost Cause ideologys success, an academic building at USNA was named for Maury (Hall, 1929; Figure 2). Recruitment and role modeling are likewise crucial for the navy, an integral part of training midshipmen, and also important for creating a functional work culture. Deacon, M. 1997. Lewis, C.L. Besides his detailed geographic depiction of the landscape, Maury included a wealth of thematic information, including predominant church denominations, geological regions, zoological distributions, and, of course, prevailing wind patterns across the country. 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. Great knowledge for an old Navy navigator. Some have been placed at Virginia Military Institute or lent to the Smithsonian. Within 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.[9]. The naval mines, called torpedoes at that time, were similar to present-day contact mines and were said by the Secretary of the Navy in 1865 "to have cost the Union more vessels than all other causes combined. 1839), m. Virginia Draper, daughter of scientist, Abraham Maury (b. Isis 105(2):338351, https://doi.org/10.1086/676571. Saved Stories Save . Typical modern ocean and marine science textbooks include an entire chapter on the history of the field, in striking contrast to textbooks of biology, chemistry, genetics, and other fields which do not (see, for example, Stewart, 2008; Sverdrup etal., 2008; Garrison and Ellis, 2015). unless clearly stated otherwise. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution blog, February 4, https://web.whoi.edu/big/black-history-month-blog-series-2020-highlighting-achievements-of-black-oceanographers/. Maury became important to oceanographers, and particularly to Americans, for a variety of reasons (Figure 3). Maury entered the navy in 1825 as a midshipman, circumnavigated the globe (1826-30), and in 1836 was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Matthew Fontaine Maury (January 14, 1806 - February 1, 1873), United States Navy, was an American astronomer, historian, oceanographer, meteorologist, cartographer, author, geologist, and educator. MAURY, MATTHEW FONTAINE (b. near Fredericksburg, Virginia, 14 January 1806; d.Lexington, Virginia, 1 February 1873) Physical geography, meteorology, oceanography.. Maury was the seventh child of a small planter, Richard Maury, who was a descendant of a Huguenot family that had come to Virginia from Ireland about 1718, and the former Diana Minor, whose English and Dutch forebears had settled in . He made some efforts to stay the course of the stars, which now seem as . The Weapons and Systems Engineering division resides in Maury Hall remembering Matthew Fontaine Maury, a pioneer in naval meteorology and navigation. As head of the Depot of Charts and Instruments and superintendent of the new Naval Observatory, Maury applied navy resources to the development of science, particularly astronomy and hydrography. This led to the establishment at Blacksburg of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, later renamed Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in 1872. River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom. [3] He held that position until his resignation in April 1861. Publ. 2019. When you can describe it in numbers, then you know something about it.. of Children 8 Family Richard Maury (father), Diana Minor (mother), Ann Hull Herndon (wife) Occupation As a U.S. Navy officer, he was required to decline awards from foreign nations. He argued that a southerly route running through Texas would avoid winter snows and could open up commerce with the northern states of Mexico. 189-201; and Hill, The Confederate Exodus to Latin America (no place of publication, 1936), pp. 1, 6. When a leg injury left midshipman Maury unfit for duty aboard the U.S.S. Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk. In March 2013, the U.S. Navy launched the oceanographic survey ship USNS Maury (T-AGS-66). This is my great great great grandfather. Varon, E.R. Naval Academy board chair calls to remove Confederate names from buildings. He gave speeches until his last days when he collapsed while giving one. Maury occasionally hosted Adams, who enjoyed astronomy as an avocation, at the Naval Observatory. Here's an article about the monument with a photo showing the whole statue. He survived, but his back was so seriously injured that farming was out . Maury was a descendant of the Maury family, a prominent Virginia family of Huguenot ancestry that can be traced back to 15th-century France. Hoege, H. 2020. Maury estimated he had covered 1,844 miles in 12 November days and made $540; tickets to his lectures sold for 50 cents and he candidly admitted, "Am afraid of empty benches." January 1889 Issue. New Virginia Colony. Life and Letters of Matthew Fontaine Maury. of Spouses 1 No. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 202 pp. Pp. He told his family that his work 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."[2]. His 1851 Trade wind chart of the Atlantic Ocean is a striking visualization of Atlantic Ocean trade winds across time and space, with recordings made specific to calendar month and location (by latitude and longitude).