Prophet Without Honor (1939)

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.