January 25, 1862---Maury's Mosquitoes

JANUARY 25, 1862:            

Matthew Fontaine Maury, Oceanographer and celebrated “Pathfinder of The Seas” threw in his lot with the Confederacy. He believed that capital ships were too wasteful and ironclads too inefficient. He preferred, rather, “Mosquito Fleets” of small, fast, lightly armed attack boats, and in fact, his Mosquito Fleets worked well in practice. On this day in 1862, he wrote to C.S.A. Secretary of The Navy Stephen Mallory, complaining that too many workmen were being diverted from building his gunboats into building other vessels.