Volume Thirteen - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Remarkable Connections - Darwin, FitzRoy, Hawkshaw & Wedgwood . . . .

FitzRoy's great experiment - When Admiral Robert FitzRoy became head of the Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade in 1854, his purpose was closely connected with maritime safety.

He began collecting weather observations from stations around the British and Irish coasts. Observers recorded barometric pressure, temperature, wind direction and force, cloud, rain, fog and sea conditions. These observations were transmitted to London using the new electric telegraph. For the first time, weather conditions from widely separated coastal locations could be brought together and compared.

This was the beginning of something revolutionary : Instead of discovering a storm only when it arrived, FitzRoy believed that its approach could be recognised from observations made elsewhere. That idea seems obvious today but back in the 1850's it was far from obvious!

The Royal Charter Gale - The disaster that gave FitzRoy's work its greatest urgency occurred in late October 1859. The Royal Charter Gale was one of the most severe storms of the nineteenth century in the Irish Sea. The storm caused approximately 800 deaths and destroyed 133 ships, with many more badly damaged. 1859 - The wreck of the Royal Charter - Contemporary lithograph - National Library of Wales. [439]

The steam clipper Royal Charter was driven onto the coast of Anglesey and wrecked, with more than 450 people losing their lives. FitzRoy studied the storm in detail and produced charts showing how the disturbance had developed and moved. He believed that the observations available could have provided sufficient warning to mariners. The result was a radical proposition : Warn the ships before the storm arrives.