MAY 22ND, 1865: Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury arrived at Havana on the SS Atrato and learned of General Johnston's surrender. Realizing the futility of his intended efforts, he abandoned his plans to proceed with his electric torpedo equipment to Galveston for the defense of that harbor.
As he wrote later to his wife: "I left $30,000 to $40,000 worth of torpedoes, telegraphic wire, etc. which I bought for the defense of Richmond. Bulloch paid for them but they were left in Havana at the breakup, subject to my orders. I write by mail directing that they be turned over to Bulloch.
"Now they don't belong to him, neither do they to me. But it is quite a relief to get rid of them by transferring them to a man who I am sure will make the most proper use of them. I do not want any of the $10,000 to $20,000 which they will bring, though some one will get it who had no more right to it than I have."
Maury's keen sense of honor is borne out by the audit of his accounts delivered to him shortly before he sailed from England. Bulloch's assistant wrote: "Although the custom here would have sanctioned your receiving a large per centum in the way of commission on contracts., purchases and disbursements made by me, yet you consistently set your face against it and never, to my certain knowledge, received a shilling."
Doing the Right Thing. --Old B-Runner
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