An Elementary, Practical and Theoretical Treatise on Navigation

A Naval officer and pioneer in the emerging field of oceanography, Matthew Fontaine Maury was nicknamed the "Pathfinder of the Seas." Maury gave crucial support to Cyrus Field and the idea of a transatlantic cable by showing Field the route that a cable could take across the ocean.

Circling the Globe - Raised in Tennessee, Maury yearned to follow in his brother's footsteps and join the Navy. In 1825, at the age of 19, he received a midshipman's commission with the help of Sam Houston. Maury spent much of the next nine years at sea, participating in three extended voyages including the first circling of the globe by a U.S. Navy vessel. Dissatisfied with current naval books on navigation, Maury set about to improve them, and his A New Theoretical and Practical Treatise on Navigation was published in 1836.