The work of Matthew Fontaine Maury took place during the American Civil War, 1861-1865. Maury was a Commodore in the Confederate Navy. He was the first naval man to deploy torpedoes which he used in fixed positions to protect the navigable waterways of the South from enemy attack. The book was written by his son, also a naval man, who had worked alongside him, and was thus able to access written documents to describe his father's work.