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The significance of the title, “Scraps from the Lucky Bag”, is indicated by the following introductory parody, which enumerates the contents of a lucky bag on shipboard:

“Shoe of middy and waister’s sock,

Wing of soldier and idler’s frock,

Purser’s slops and topman’s hat,

Boatswain’s call and colt and cat,

Belt that on the berth-deck lay,

In the Lucky Bag find their way;

Gaiter, stock, and red pompoon,

Sailor’s pan, his pot and spoon,

Shirt of cook and trowser’s duck,

Kid and can and ‘doctor’s truck’,

And all that’s lost and found on board

In the Lucky Bag’s always stored.”

It was a well-chosen and apt title, which enabled Maury to treat in the same article of various matters more or less unrelated. Among the various topics that he touched upon was, first, the desirability of having grades in the navy higher than those of captain, to correspond with those in foreign navies. He also declared that there should be a larger force on the coast of Africa to put down the traffic in slaves, and more warships in the Pacific to support American commerce with China and to protect American fishermen on the whaling grounds. Thus prophetically did he portray the future of American trade on that ocean: “If you have a map of the world at hand, turn to it and, placing your finger at the mouth of the Columbia River, consider its geographical position and the commercial advantages which, at some day not far distant, that point will possess. To the south, in one unbroken line, lie several thousand miles of coast indented with rich markets of Spanish America—to the west, Asiatic Russia and China are close at hand—between the south and west are New Holland and Polynesia; and within good marketable distance are all the groups and clusters of islands that stud the ocean, from Cape Horn to the Cape of Good Hope, from Asia to America. Picture to yourself civilization striding the Rocky Mountains, and smiling down upon the vast and fruitful regions beyond, and calculate, if you can, the important and future greatness of that point to a commercial and enterprising people. Yet the first line in the hydrography of such a point remains to be run. It has been more than twenty years since an American man-of-war so much as looked into the mouth of the Columbia River. Upon what more important service could a small force be dispatched than to survey and bring home correct charts of that river and its vicinity?”