recommended for furlough through public notices. The Board argued that he had served too long on the Coast Survey and, thus, wo uld not be fit for service on a manof-war. Several high-ranking witn esses testified on his behalf, including Alexander Dallas Bache, and the Chamber of Comm erce of Charleston, South Carolina, offered a testimonial as well. Testimony from Captain Charles S. McCauley, an old line officer who began his navy career in 1809 and had never been associated with the Coast Survey, reads: I don't think that an officer who has served regular apprenticeship on board a man-of-war, for seven or eight years, and who has gone on board a surveying vessel, can become disqualified for the naval service-on the co ntrary, I think it is a better school than a man-of-war, in some parriculars. In these vessels he is always on the coast, and on board a m an-of-war he goes out to sea, where there is nothing but the weather to watch. Whereas, on the coast, yo u have to be on the constant alert for rocks, shoals, and the land besides that the danger of collisions is increased, and the officer has to exercise co nstant vigilance. I would be willing to take such a man as m y first lieutenant under the circumstances described in the question. What I mean to say is, that an officer serving on the Coast Survey is not disqualified for the Navy, unless he abandons the Navy altogether. They must have someone to do that duty, and I believe they always take the best officers for it. During the C ivil War, Maffitt became a Confederate commerce raider and blockade runner, much to the chagrin of th e Union Navy. In the scientific realm, ten naval officers who had passed through the Survey went on to become either Superintendents of the Naval Observatory and/or the Chief of the Naval H ydrographic Office. Charles H enry Davis became the first Superintendent of the Nautical Almanac Office and later the Superintendent of the Naval Observatory and H ydrographic Office. Davis was both a student and brother-in-law of the H arvard mathematician (and later
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Alexander Dallas Bache, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, became the second Superintendent ofthe Coast Survey in 1843. Under his leadership, the Survey expanded its core missions of hydrography, geodesy, topography, and the printing arts. Director of the Coast Survey, 1867-74), Benj amin Peirce. As head of the Nautical Almanac Office, Davis translated Carl Friedrich Gauss's Theoria motvs corporvm coefestivm in sectionibvs conicis so/em ambientivm or "Theory of the motion of the heavenly bodies moving about the sun about the sun in conic sections." He also published on oceanographic topics and was the first to begin systematic observations of the Gulf Stream while attached to the Coast Survey in 1845. Davis remained a staunch, life-long ally and friend of the Coast Survey. He was also instrumental in the formation of the National Academy of Sciences during the Civil War, fulfilling Alexander Dallas Bache's longtime dream. John Dahlgren , developer of the Dahlgren Gun, was a close second in scientific accomplishments to Davis and the only naval officer to have ever headed a Coast Survey geodetic triangulation party. Serving with Ferdinand Hassler, Dahlgren
was entrusted with many of the computations and observations and also helped with the determination and co nstruction of weights and meas ures-all tasks which helped lead to his later success in the field of naval ordnance. Why is Matthew Fontaine Maury absent from this list? In 1839 Maury applied to head a Coast Survey triangulation party. Superintendent Hassler declined his services for unstated reasons. Shortly thereafter, Maury suffered a serious leg injury in a stagecoach accident, rendering him lame for the rest of his life. It will never be known if H assler's rejection was the root cause of problems berween Maury and H assler's successor, Alexander Dallas Bache, after M aury became head of the Naval Observatory. On at least rwo occasions, Maury attempted to take over the operations of the Survey. In the latter third of the nineteenth century, Charles D . Sigsbee and John Elliott Pillsbury served on the Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer Blake, the most innovative oceanographic vessel of its time. Sigsbee was a m echanical genius and designed a number of oceanographic instruments, including the Sigsbee Sounding Machin e, a piano-wire sounding instrument whose design was used for deep-sea sounding until the development of aco ustic sounding systems. With the great oceanographer Alexander Agassiz, he also pioneered the use of steel rope, as opposed to hemp, for overthe-side oceanographic operations. John Elliot Pillsbury conducted classical Gulf Stream observations, sufficiently accurate to prove the value of numerical modeling of oceanographic phenomena. H e also pi oneered deep-ocean anchoring, having done so in a record depth of 2,200 fathoms during one set of Gulf Stream observations. With the advent of the SpanishAmerican War in 1898, naval officers were detached from the Survey, never to return . (left) Some of the great names in naval and scientific history are listed in the early rosters of US Coast Survey service. john Dahlgren served on the Survey from 1834-37. Later, assigned to ordnance duty at the "Washington Navy Yard, Dahlgren developed the Dahlgren Gun, which became standard armament for the US Navy before the Civil "War. In this c. 1864 photo, Dahlgren poses next to a 5 0 pounder "bottle" cannon. SEA HISTORY 120, AUTUMN 2007