instituted by this great American philosopher of the seas had been to lessen the expenses of the voyage (by shortening the passage) of a 1000-ton vessel from England to Rio, India, or China, by no less than £250; while on a voyage of a ship of that tonnage to California or Australia and back the saving effected was £1200 or £1300."
When 'The San Francisco,' with hundreds of United States troops on board, foundered in an Atlantic hurricane,and the rumour reached port that she was in need every one looked to Maury as the only man in the country who could tell where to find the drifting wreck. To him the Secretary of the Navy sent for information. He at once set to work and showed how the wind and currents acting upon a helpless wreck would combine to drift her here, pointing to a spot on the chart, and making a cross-mark with the blue pencil he had in his hand. Just there the relief was sent, and just there the, survivors of the wreck were picked up. This was an incidental result of his study of winds and currents."
The value of his system being now fully demonstrated, Lieutenant Maury was authorized by the Government to solicit the co-operation of European powers in the establishment of a general system of meteorological research by sea. Copies of the Charts and Sailing Directions were forwarded without charge to the Government ships of all countries, and should be distributed gratuitously to the masters of merchant vessels, with the understanding that each one so furnished should keep a record in the prescribed form, and at the of each voyage forward it to Maury at Washington. The form was as follows:—Each navigator was to enter in his abstract log every day in the year the temperature of air and water, the direction of the wind, and set of the currents, the height of the barometer, &c. He was also to cast overboard at stated periods bottles tightly corked, containing, on a slip of paper,
