Trail Blazer of the Seas

In the early 1800's the voyage from New York to San Francisco took six months. That was before Matthew Fontaine Maury, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, blazed a trail for ships to follow. All his life he fought, against bitter opposition, for his ideas: for a Naval Academy, for better fortifications of our southern ports, for separate steam lanes for eastbound and westbound shipping in the Atlantic to prevent collisions. He blazed the trail for the laying of the Atlantic Cable, and for the founding of our weather bureau. An inspiring and absorbing biography.