"'If you will cause to be kept on board your ship a journal, or abstract, as it is called, telling according to a prescribed form how you find wind, weather, and sea, and if at the end of your voyage you will return the same to the Observatory, then I am authorized to say that you shall be entitled to receive not only a copy of the charts now offered, but a copy also of every other chart for which you shall assist in collecting the material.'
"As a result of this proposition, more than a thousand American merchantmen were soon engaged, night and day, in all parts of the ocean, in making observations according to a uniform plan, thus contributing by voluntary cooperation in the execution of the most extensive system of philosophical investigation ever attempted in any age. It was at once appreciated and approved by other commercial nations. They cheerfully volunteered the co-operation of their navies, military and commercial, to aid in its successful prosecution. Thereupon Lieutenant Maury sought and obtained leave to confer with the most distinguished meteorologists at home and abroad, for the purpose of arranging a uniform plan among all nations of meteorological observations. A conference upon this subject was consequently held at Brussels, in 1853, in which the principal States of Europe were represented. This conference recommended a plan of observations which has been generally adopted by all sea-faring people. It was approved by Congress. A resolution was adopted directing the Secretary of the Navy to place three Government vessels under the direction of the Superintendent of the National Observatory, to aid in perfecting the system of observations so cheerfully undertaken by the commanders of nearly all the merchant ships and ships of war afloat on the ocean without cost to their respective Governments.
"And thus data are furnished for the construction of the
