The Beaufort Scale. For all Sailors, Wannabes, & Travellers

Dear friends,

I wonder if some of you might like to know more about the Beaufort Scale? I

did. Here are gleanings from my research. :-) By the way, I appreciate the term

"Men of the Sea." Are any of you forum members men of the sea, either studying to become sailors, or already sailors? I know we have many professions represented in the forum.

At age 13 years, (born in 1774 in County Meath, Ireland,) the son of an Irish clergyman joined the British Navy as a cabin boy. It took only three years for him

to begin keeping a journal in the form of brief comments on the general weather

scene. He did this until his death many years later when he had won fame and a

title. He was only 22 when he rose to the rank of lieutenant, and in 1805 he had

his first command of a ship. They were assigned to do a hydrographic survey of

the Rio de la Plata region of South America. Already he had developed his first

version of his Wind For Scale and Weather Notation. He eventually took observations at two hour intervals.

In 1811 and 1812 -- (By the way, Canadians remember 1812-15 as the time the U.S.

invaded Canada. I know that some of David's and my ancestors fought in the War

of 1812 here. A British General named Sir Isaac Brock died in that war near where we used to live in Ontario. Canadians during that war made it all the way down

to Washington DC, and burned The White House. It only became known by that name

because it was painted white to cover the damage of the burning. The US say they won that war. Canadians say we won that war. Canada's still here intact, so I

guess probably we did, eh? ;-> )

Anyway, in 1812 Beaufort was in the Eastern Mediterranean off Asia Minor in a different ship, but again doing hydrographic studies and also on a patrol mission

against pirates operating out of the Levant. He was wounded by a sniper's ball in the groin while leading the rescue of some of his men from local pashas. They

were a survey party that had been sent ashore to make astronomical observations.

Beaufort and his ship were both in great need of repair and, ordered home by the Admiralty, Beaufort was never able to return to active sea duty again, although he remained in the British Navy until he was 81 and had a naval career spanning 68 years.

Beaufort outlined the hydrographic studies for many British expeditions, including that of the H.M.S. "Beagle," which carried Charles Darwin, who wrote the very

famous "The Origin of Species." By 1838 Beaufort's Wind Force Scale was introduced for use by the British fleet for all log entries, joining his Weather Notation, which had been prescribed for use five years earlier. In 1846 he was promoted to Rear Admiral. He was given the title Knight Commander of the Bath in 1848.

He died in 1857.

Beaufort used the canvas rigged British Frigate circa 1830 as his Wind Sensor. From a drawing, I recognize the frigate as a three masted vessel very similar to

the one in which Ben's grandfather sailed around Cape Horn as a young man. Cape

Horn is at the southern tip of South America and the oceans clashing and the weather between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is extreme. Ben and I own a video of the journey of a sailing ship around Cape Horn. It strains humans to their utmost, and also their ships. It is cold there and ice coats everything.

Storms are constant.

Back to frigates, and Admiral Beaufort: Beaufort said "nothing gives a more indefinite representation of the wind and weather than the previously used expressions like "moderate wind" or "cloudy weather."

Originally his Scale consisted of 13 degrees of wind strength, from calm to hurricane, and was based upon the effects of various wind strengths upon the amount

of canvas carried by a fully rigged frigate of the period. The frigate was the prime ship of the British fleet of the time. The Scale was divided into three sections as described by the Commander of the famous "Beagle", Commander Robert Fitzroy: the first five states (Forces 0-4; being 1 - 6 knots.) It described a ship

's speed with all sails set and clean full, and in smooth water.

The next five (Forces 5-9) concerned the ship's mission, the chase, and its sail

-carrying ability. For example, in a strong gale (Force 9), a well-conditioned man-of-war could just barely carry in chase, full and by, and had more reefing than in an 8 Gale Force wind, which called for treble-reefed topsails. At Force 9

the topsails had to be close-reefed and courses.

The final three Forces (10-12) referred to a ship's abiliity to survive whole gale, storm, or hurricane. A 10, called Whole Gale, the condition was that she could scarcely bear close-reefed main-topsail and reefed fore-sail. Force 11 was Storm and reduced the ship to storm staysails. 12 was hurricane, which no canvas could withstand.

The Weather Notation was adopted by the British Navy in 1833 and the Scale was adopted in 1838 because it had no ambiguities for the sailors and officers of the

day. Time passed, eventually the frigate was no longer the prime ship of the British Navy and the dominant ship on the seas. The Scale and Weather Notation were used with slight changes until nearly a century later an international conference meeting in Warsaw, Poland in 1935 officially approved a form of the Beaufort

notation for international exchange of weather observations.

Today, numbers have generally replaced alphabetics for the reporting of general

observations, except for some specialized reports where letter notation is still

used to indicate weather and cloud conditions. Direct measurements have replaced the estimates of the Wind Force Scale. The new forms, however, don't hide the

legacy of Sir Francis Beaufort as landsmen and sailors alike, continue to describe the ever-changing sea and the ever-present wind.

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