Sir Francis Beaufort and the Beaufort Scale

SEAFARERS, aviators and chronic insomniacs are familiar with the Beaufort Scale, the empirical measure of wind force so soothingly delivered on the Shipping Forecast.

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It was developed on board HMS Woolwich by its then commander, Irish-born Francis Beaufort (1774-1857). Beaufort's first seafaring position was as a cabin boy aged 14 on the East Indiaman Vansittart, soon learning the value of accurate charts when she hit a shoal off Indonesia and was wrecked. In 1790, he joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman, even then 'expand[ing] his journal from the required notation of the weather every 12 to 24 hours to reports of it at two-hour intervals'. From then on, until three days before his death aged 83, he kept a daily weather journal, with notations of wind, temperature and barometric readings.