Commander
Matthew F. Maury of the U.S. Navy was already renowned among oceanographers
when he changed uniforms. Becoming a Confederate officer of the same rank, he
played a key role in establishing a battery of submarines.
Today, memories of his wartime work are eclipsed by the fact that he was the first man to recognize of the Gulf Stream. His pioneer work in studying the world’s largest bodies of water caused the one-time Confederate commander to become known as “The Pathfinder of the Seas.”
