Prophet Without Honor

Prophet Without Honor (1939)

*** (out of 4)

Carey Wilson short tells the story of Matthew Fontaine Maury, a Naval officer who is credited with developing the first maps charting ocean winds and currents. Original left crippled due to an accident, Maury would become the most decorated Naval man in American history before being kicked out of the country at the outbreak of the Civil War. This short film runs only eleven-minutes but it tells a very interesting story and gives us all sorts of information on the man. I must admit that I got really caught up in the film and was really shocked at how poorly Maury was looked at for a time. The documentary does a great job at telling his story and it really gives us, what appears to be, a honest look at him. Tom Neal does a very good job in the role of Maury but a lot of the credit has to go to Wilson for his beautiful narration. This turns up on Turner Classic Movies and is certainly worth watching.

Yikes, talk about adulatory! Carey Wilson does go slightly over the top with this appreciation of Matthew Fontaine Maury. This (Tom Neal) is a naval officer whose injury in a stagecoach accident condemns him to a frustrating desk-bound career amidst the maps and charts. Initially despondent, he soon discovers he has an aptitude for following the tides, currents and winds and for learning how to predict how they could impact on shipping. He manages to overcome the scepticism of his peers but is forced to Europe during the civil war where he acts on behalf of the Confederacy (he was from Virginia). Not included in the general amnesty after the war, he had to wait for many years before finally being permitted to return home where he took up lecturing. This was a man who was instrumental in quite significantly improving maritime safety and in plotting improved trade and underwater cable routes, but I suspect even he might blush at the effusiveness of the narration here that only just stops short of crediting him with inventing the wind itself.

Despite being a native of New York City, I had never heard of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans before I saw this short. Turns out it's in the Bronx, which goes a way towards explaining that gap. Designed by Stanford White. Sounds it might be worth a trip north of Central Park to see his handiwork.

Anyway, this MGM short is about Matthew Maury, who first charted the winds and currents. He was acclaimed in his day until the Civil War. He was a Virginian. He resigned his commissions and went to work for the Confederacy.

Despite Carey Wilson's overwrought narration, it's an interesting bit of history.

The story of Matthew Fontaine Maury, a young man who became a Naval officer at 25 in 1831, but due to an accident had to give up his shipboard service and assume desk work. He worked on Naval charts and soon became an expert on natural laws governing ocean behavior. When authorities were unable to locate a vessel missing at sea, he figured out a way to find the missing ship using his knowledge of winds and currents and their behavior.

Because he supported the South during the Civil War, he was shunned by his fellow Southerners when he returned to Virginia. He became an expatriate in Paris but returned to the United States when he was forgiven by General Robert E. Lee and became an instructor at Virginia Military Institute.

His extraordinary story is told in crisp fashion in this informative short subject on his life.

An uncredited Tom Neal plays Maury.

Amazing and true story of young US Navy officer in 1825 after injury caused him to become desk bound discovered and charted wind and ocean currents, also planned Panama canal, and father of modern weather map. His work was largely forgotten because he chose to support the South during Civil War and was branded a traitor.