This he did, issuing a book upon the subject.
When a broken leg, the result of a stage-coach accident, caused his retirement from active service at sea, he continued his studies, and, in recognition of his services to navigation, was given charge of the Depot of Charts and Instruments at Washington.

There he found stored away the log books of American naval vessels, and from the vast number of observations they contained, began the compilation of the Wind and Currents Charts known to all mariners.
A monograph on Maury, issued by N.W.Ayer & Son, of Philadelphia, says of these charts: "They were, at first, received with indifference and incredulity.
Finally, a Captain Jackson determined to trust the new chart absolutely.
As a result he made a round trip to Rio de Janeiro in the time often required for the outward passage alone.

Later, four clipper ships started from New York for San Francisco, via Cape Horn.

These vessels arrived at their destination in the order determined by the degree of fidelity with which they had followed the directions of Maury's charts.
The arrival of these ships in San Francisco marked, likewise, the arrival of Maury's Wind and Currents Charts in the lasting favor of the mariners of the world.

The average voyage to San Francisco was reduced, by use of the charts, from one hundred and eighty-three to one hundred and thirty-five days, a saving of forty-eight days.
"Soon after this, the ship _San Francisco_, with hundreds of United States troops on board, foundered in an Atlantic hurricane.