Hold Charts Hostage Until He Got Log Books
Hold charts hostage until he got log books
MATTHEW FOUNTAINE MAURY-PATHFINDER OF THE SEAS
Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Fontaine_Maury, http://www.icr.org/article/modern-scientific-discoveries-verify-scriptures/, http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v11/i3/maury.asp, http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/270 , http://bibleabc.net/l3/has_done/question42b.htm, and http://www.bible.ca/tracks/matthew-fontaine-maury-pathfinder-of-sea-ps8.htm
Almost all Christians know that the Bible has is very valuable in spiritual and historical and relationship areas and others. Some know about its value for science and how many of the greatest scientists in history had deep faith in God and often developed their science from statements and clues in the Bible. But, you might not know that the Bible’s science has saved many millions of dollars for businesses and governments and others every year for over 150 years. Here’s the story of how.
In 1825 at age 19, Matthew Fontaine Maury joined the United States Navy as a midshipman on board the frigate Brandywine. carrying the Marquis de La Fayette back to France (La Fayette had helped enormously in the American Revolution as a general and had come to America to celebrate its 50th anniversary). Almost immediately he began to study the seas and record methods of navigation. In 1839, he was in a stagecoach accident and broke his leg badly (some say his hip and knee). It did not heal properly, and he was lame the rest of his life and his career as a sailor ended. Over the next 19 years Maury devoted himself to studying naval meteorology, navigation, winds, clouds, and weather. He also studied the Bible. He could not help but be fascinated by passages that mention the sea, such as Psalm 8:8, Psalm 107:23-24, and Ecclesiastes 1:7. Whoever studies the sea, Maury contended, “must look upon it as a part of that exquisite machinery by which the harmonies of nature are preserved, and then will begin to perceive the developments of order and the evidences of design” (Physical Geography, p. 57). Because of his detailed knowledge of the oceans, he eventually became Superintendent of the Naval Observatory and head of the Depot of Charts and Instruments from 1841-1861. Here Maury was able to study thousands of ships' logs and charts.
One day Maury was very sick and he asked one of his daughters to get the Bible and read to him. She Psalm 8 to him:
1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
FINDING THE PATHS OF THE SEA
Other could could read that and be inspired, but Maury was very aware of the challenges for the sailing industry of his time. He repeated "the paths of the sea, the paths of the sea, if God says the paths of the sea, they are there, and if I ever get out of this bed I will find them." (from “A Brief Sketch of the Work of Matthew Fontaine Maury” by his son Colonel Richard L. Maury). He was also aware of Ecclesiastes 1:6, which states: "The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits."
Maury, on the basis of the Bible, concluded that there are well-established wind circuits, and that there are literally "paths in the sea" - that is, definite currents in the ocean. He reasoned that if these wind currents and ocean currents could be located and plotted, this information would be of great value to marine navigators. Utilizing this information, the sailing vessels could be directed along routes that would take advantage of these sea and air currents, reducing by many days the time required to traverse the seas. Many of Maury's contemporaries, of course, would have scoffed at Maury. They would have said, "Maury, do you really mean that you are going to spend hour after hour on some wild goose chase searching through those dusty old logs and charts you have in your office just because the Bible says there are paths in the sea?"
That is precisely what Maury did, however, and the Biblical statements were precisely verified. Maury found and plotted the wind circuits and the ocean currents. Maury began deep sea soundings as soon as he was strong enough, and found that two ridges extended from the New York coast to England. He also studied the speed and direction of the ocean currents by setting adrift weighted bottles known as ‘drift bottles’. These floated slightly below the surface of the water, and thus were not affected by wind. Instructions were sealed in each bottle directing anyone who found one washed ashore to return it. From the location and date on which the bottles were found, Maury was able to develop his charts of the ocean currents—the ‘paths’ of the seas, for ships to sail over one path to England and return over the other in much shorter times. He found, for example, the great Gulf Current - a "path in the sea" forty miles wide and 2000 feet deep flowing from the Gulf of Mexico up through the Atlantic. This current not only moves faster than other ocean water, it has a major influence on countries that are near it. It keeps Norway 2 degrees centigrade above freezing when it would otherwise be far below freezing. Cool water carried by some currents also aids in dissipating tropical storms. Maury didn’t stop with the Gulf Current. He charted ocean currents all over the world as well as charting winds, ocean depths and a number of others things that have greatly aided the science of marine navigation.
Certain others had noticed currents flowing in the ocean before Maury, but Maury’s work was far more detailed and precise. It was a gigantic jump forward and far more practical than anything before. It was so accurate that it was and is used by ships traveling all over the world. His charts became so valuable to ship captains that he would kind of hold the charts hostage, requiring ship captains to turn over their log books to him before he would give them his charts. In this way he could keep on making the charts even more accurate and useful.
AWARDS
In 1851 President Fillmore stated in his annual message that by means of Maury's wind and current charts the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific ports of our country had been shortened by about forty days. In 1854 the Secretary of the Navy asserted that Maury's work had promoted commerce by pointing out to the mariner new paths in the great deep where favorable winds and currents lent aid; that his charts and sailing directions, by shortening the voyages of merchant vessels, were saving millions of dollars. The whole world is in deep debt to this "Pathfinder" who trusted the Bible. Before Maury charted the best paths from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it usually took a ship about 180 days to sail from New York to San Francisco, fifteen thousand miles, around Cape Horn; but by the year 1855, after his charts had been in use for seven or eight years, the average time had been reduced to about 133 days. In 1851, the Flying Cloud made the run in slightly less than ninety days. The same year there was a famous race between the Sea Witch, the Typhoon, and the Raven. The Raven won, making the long voyage in 105 days. The year before she had made the same voyage in 97 days. Another long voyage for the sailing ships of those days was the trip from England to Australia and New Zealand. They went down by the coasts of Spain and Portugal and the long shores of Africa, turned eastward close around the Cape of Good Hope, and then crossed the wide Indian Ocean. Homeward bound, they came back over the same route, often fighting against adverse winds. It took them about one hundred and twenty days each way. Maury proposed a new route for them. Following his directions, they made a wide circle around the Cape of Good Hope going eastward, and then instead of turning back for the homeward voyage they continued eastward ' the winds strong behind them, circled the globe, and came up into the Atlantic around Cape Horn. By this new route they saved about forty-eight days on the round trip. It is estimated that following the paths mapped out by Maury saved the merchants and ship owners of the United States over two million dollars a year, and those of Great Britain about ten million each year. In 1853 a number of merchants and other business men of New York presented him with several fine pieces of silverware and a purse of $5,000. In 1854 Columbia University made him a Doctor of Laws. The next year a New York firm named one of their fast ships in his honor; and a few years later he received a letter of appreciation signed by 363 men in different parts of the country. In 1855 a bill was offered in Congress proposing to give him $25,000 from public funds, but this was not passed. (The Pathfinder of the Seas, The Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury, John W. Wayland, 1930, p85)
Maury died in 1873. He was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. A monument erected in his honour on Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, reads: ‘Matthew Fontaine Maury, Pathfinder of the Seas, the genius who first snatched from the oceans and atmosphere the secret of their laws. His inspiration, Holy Writ, Psalm 8:8; Ecclesiastes 1:6.’
MAURY’S VIEWS OF THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE
It is often claimed that the Bible is not a scientific textbook. Yet the Bible’s accuracy when touching on scientific subjects has led many great scientists, including Matthew Maury, to some outstanding scientific discoveries. Maury knew full well that his view of the scientific accuracy clashed with those of his colleagues. Before five thousand people at the founding of the University of the South in 1860, he proclaimed the following:
· I have been blamed by men of science, both in this country and in England, for quoting the Bible in confirmation of the doctrines of physical geography. The Bible, they say, was not written for scientific purposes, and is therefore no authority in matters of science. I beg pardon! The Bible is authority for everything it touches. What would you think of an historian who should refuse to consult historical records of the Bible, because the Bible was not written for the purposes of history? The Bible is true and science is true and therefore each, the truth of the other if truly read, but proves the truth of the other. The agents in the physical economy of our planet are ministers of Him who made both it and the Bible. The records which He has chosen to make through the agency of these ministers of His upon the crust of the earth are as true as the records which, by the hands of His prophets and servants, He has been pleased to make in the Book of Life. ("A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury" by Diana Fontaine Maury Corbin. 1888 AD, p175)
He also wrote these things about his view of the Bible and Science that echo the thinking of many of the greatest scientists in history.
· You ask about the "harmony of science and revelation," and wish to know if I find distinct traces in the Old Testament of scientific knowledge, and in the Bible any knowledge of the winds and ocean currents. Yes, knowledge the most correct and reliable. ("A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury" by Diana Fontaine Maury Corbin. 1888 AD, p158)
· "As our knowledge of the laws of nature has increased, so have our readings of the Bible improved.- The Bible frequently makes allusion to the laws of nature, their operation and effects. ... And as for the general system of atmospherical circulation which I have been so long endeavoring to describe, the Bible tells it all in a single sentence: The wind goeth towards the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits."" - Ecclesiastes 1:6 (M.F. Maury, Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology, 1888 AD, 21 edition, p82, section 216)
Maury’s daughter said about him, “For the Bible he entertained the highest veneration, and its testimony, to his mind, was ever strengthened by the progress of scientific discovery.” Life of Matthew Fontain Maury, Diana Fontaine Maury Corbin, 1888 AD p287)
Was Matthew Maury really a genius, or was he simply one who trusted the Bible as the Word of God? Whether he was a genius or not, it was not his genius, but his faith in the Bible that directed his efforts into a scientific research project, the results of which fully vindicated that faith.
There are numerous other instances in which scientific discoveries have been foreshadowed by Biblical statements. The few cited do, however, reflect the fact that although the Bible may not be a book focused on science, it has very significant scientific aspects that have proven to be scientifically accurate when tested and have also provided enormous benefit to humanity when followed.