Portal:American Civil War/Selected biography/50

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Matthew Fontaine Maury (January 14, 1806 – February 1, 1873), USN was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, historian, oceanographer, meteorologist, cartographer, author, geologist, and educator. He was nicknamed Pathfinder of the Seas and Father of modern Oceanography and Naval Meteorology and later, Scientist of the Seas, due to the publication of his extensive works in his books, especially Physical Geography of the Sea 1855, the first extensive and comprehensive book on oceanography to be published. Maury made many important new contributions to charting winds and ocean currents, including pathways for ships at sea.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Maury, born in Virginia, resigned his commission as a U.S. Navy Commander to serve on the Confederate side as Chief of Seacoast, River and Harbor Defences. He also went abroad in England, Ireland France, acquiring ships and supplies for the Confederacy. Through speeches and newspaper publications, Maury attempted to get other nations to stop the Civil War. Maury also perfected an electric torpedo which raised havoc with northern shipping. The torpedoes, similar to present-day contact mines, were said by the Secretary of the Navy in 1865 to have cost the Union more vessels than all other causes combined.