User:William Maury Morris II/sandbox1a

THE "MAURY" AFFAIR.

... THE "MAURY" AFFAIR. The committee appointed by the New York Chamber of Commerce to ascertain and report the facts connected with the seizure of the barque Maury had made their report, and the chamber hid ... properly apologised to the owners of the Maury for the infamous impeachment against them. 

THE "MAURY" AFFAIR. The committee appointed by the New York Chamber of Commerce to ascertain and report the facts connected with the seizure of the Maury had made their report, and the chamber had adopted it. The report states that the character of the owners of the vessel had been needlessly assailed, owing to the want of proper inquiry of the British diplomatic agents; it asserts that the United States government has always strictly enforced the laws of neutrality; the British agents had not properly apologised to the owners of the Maury for the infamous impeachment against them. One of the three resolutions adopted by the chamber on this subject is as follows:—"That the merchants, as part of the body of merchants of the United States, will uphold the government in the full maintenance of neutrality, of the laws of the country, and we should acknowledge adopt, and always have regarded the acts of the United States for preserving its neutrality as binding in honor and con- science, as well as in law and that we denounce those who violate them as disturbers of the peace of the world, to be held in universal abhorrence." The New York papers publish the report of Attorney-General Cushing to Mr. Marcy, on the result of his in inquires concerning the barque Maury.

Mr. Cushing then relates the result of the examination into the circumstance, and says:—"It appears that the Maury was owned in part by Messrs. A. A. Low and Brothers, who have afforded satisfactory information as to her construction, character, and vessels in that business, only two deck guns, deemed requisite on account of the increase of piracy in the seas of China. It further appears by these explanations that the statements made as to the guns and munitions of war and extra spars on board the Maury, were inaccurate to use the mildest admissible expression; that the surmises as to the illegality of her character are not substantiated by proof; and that she is in fact advertised for general affreightment, and receiving cargo destinied for Shanghae. Neither Mr. Barclay nor Mr. Edwards brought forward any evidence to contradict these facts; on the contrary, Mr. Edwards has, in a letter addressed to Mr. M'Keen, expressed his intention of dismissing the libel; which is also recommended unreservedly by Mr. M'Keen. Under these circumstancs, it affords me pleasure to enable you to give assurances that the Cunard mail steamer may continue to enter and to leave our ports without apprehension of being captured by the Maury, and converted into Russian, men-of-war for the purpose of hostilities in the East Indies."

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AS IN MAURY'S DAY

The late Henry Parke [1] once wanted of the type of bureaucrat ivlw, given a desk and chair, ultimately worked it up into a huge department, the purpose of which offer than to provide him with lucrative employment-was beyond even the bureaucrat. Over 100 years ago Lt. Matthew Fontaine Maury was established in charge of the U.S.A. Depot of Charts and Instruments. and such was his burning zeal in the cause of meteorology and oceanography as they affected the mariner that in 14 years he laid the foundation stone of the U.S.A. Naval Observatory and the Hydrographic Office, now one of the greatest and most efficient in the world. His "Physical Geography of the Sea" is still a classical work on what was then a little known subject.

At that time-1841-1885-all sea trade was carried on, and naval wars were fought by sailing ships to which meteorological influences were just as important. With little or no knowledge of prevailing winds and ocean currents, sailing ships often blundered forth on ventures in which many of the most vital factors were like hidden numbers, the inevitable consequence being protracted voyages and much unnecessary suffering, to say nothing of pecuniary loss.

Shipmasters wrote the proceedings of their voyage in their log-books, And beyond that which was exchanged by word of mouth few of the data collected were disseminated for the general use and benefit of seafarers.1 Holisan, of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, made a start in that direction about 1835 when he established a post office in the cave at Booby Island, where shipmasters deposited for the benefit of fellow mariners a record of the winds and currents which they had experienced. But that was purely local to the Coral and Arafura Seas.

Maury used his official position to think through wider horizons, for he soon had many hundreds of ships, in all parts of the world, filling in specially designed log books, the meteorological and oceanographic data which he required for the ambitious scheme of track and weather charts which he envisaged. It was perhaps one of the most diffuse, yet the most comprehensive instances of remote cooperation that the world has known and certainly was among its most successful. The "Merchant's Magazine" for May, 1854, stated that the track and weather charts issued by Lieut. Maury shortened the average passage from New York to California by 30 days, to Australia by 20 days and to Rio de Janeiro by 10 days, and having regard to the large number, of individual ships plying to and from those countries, pie aggregate wiving at the end; of year rajftpio many millions-and that at a time when a million was a tremendous sum of money.'

By 1853 well over 1000 navigators all over the world were making four-hourly observations of wind, cloud, barometric pressure, temperature of sea and air, currents and, any other phenomenon of meteorology and oceanography that presented itself. Some of them greatly venturesome - used the microscope from their sextant to examine the tiny animal life" sea water at different depths, recording their impressions in language or by drawings that often carried. astonishment to staid scientific circles. But even that led to an expansion of the original scheme, to salinity and temperature being ascertained at varying depths. Never before had such a corps of competent observers been enlisted in the cause of any department of physical science, and never before had men-felt such an interest in a subject of 'such vast and widespread benefit to mankind.' Men wrote to 'tell Maury that they had "been traversing the ocean blindfold" and also that he had taught them "to look above, around, and beneath me, and recognise God'* hand in every element by which I am surrounded." The educational influence which the taking of these observations disseminated among the seafaring community can never be measured, but 'it was undoubtedly very great.

With the charting of ocean currents and wind belts the need for that great army of voluntary observers was no more. The work they did stood for all time and we are reaping the benefit of it today. In the meantime, however, a new need has arisen with the development of agriculture over vastly wider areas. Where in those days seamen wanted of all things to know of winds and currents, today primary producers want more than anything else to keep ..trade of the vast fain-bearing systems, and nowhere Is that more vital than in Australia.

. It is not generally realised that little of the rain which is becoming more and more the life-blood of Australian production has its origin within the continent. There are local storms, of course, petulant in their season as teething children, but the winter storms which nourish the southern part of the continent are borne on high pressure systems from south polar region, while the summer rains on which most of our export beef and sugar, much of our dairy products and fine wool are grown coma from low pressure monsoon systems that have their birth in equatorial regions. Meteorologically, Australia cannot fce isolationist and survive. She must get much from tropic beat and polar snows or she will perish, and so it is that a new task presents itself, a lesser Qne than that performed 100 years ago by Maury but ndne thes less important to. Australia. As the high pressure systems come from the south-west we need to get to know more of the Southern Ocean, and as the low pressure systems come from the north the meteorological fortunes of our northern neighbours are also our fortunes.

To get to know more meteorologically from the north would be a simple matter. There are large areas of land in Java, Timor aud New Guinea, most of it in sufficient state of development to undertake interchange of meteorological data. The Southern Ocean is a different proposition, as it is a wide turbulent region with little habitable land nearer than the Antarctic Circle. The nearest to ug-Marquaric Island-would be of little Ufe as it lies to the south east, and data obtained from there would be of weather we had already had. To the west lie Amsterdam and Kerguelen Islands, the latter admirably placed as an outer sentinel of weather on its way to Australia. But establishing observing stations in outlying islands is often a matter of convincing a lot of stubborn folk-it required over two years of intense campaigning to obtain official sane , tion to establishment of a station on Willis Island-but in the mean time the stream of eaBt-fcound ships from the Cape of Good Hope to Australia might be induced to wireless their meteorological data abend of thamselves. With the exception of wireless which was then unknown, it would mean going hack 100 years to the days of Maury, but as in the days of Maury the result would well reward the effort. 1