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

From FitzRoy's warnings to today's forecasts - FitzRoy's original system did not survive unchanged. His methods attracted criticism, and after his death in 1865 the storm-warning service was temporarily discontinued.

Public pressure subsequently led to its restoration in 1867. But the fundamental idea survived.

The collection of observations, their rapid transmission, analysis and communication to mariners became the foundation of Britain's continuing maritime forecasting service.

What began with FitzRoy's telegraph reports, weather charts, barometers and storm-warning cones eventually evolved into the modern Shipping Forecast. The Met Office describes the service as the world's longest-running national forecasting service. Quite an achievement Mr Fitzroy indeed!

Another remarkable connection

Darwin had sailed with FitzRoy to explore the natural world.

Hawkshaw engineered Penarth Dock to accommodate the commercial world.

FitzRoy's meteorological system helped make that maritime world safer.

For the masters and crews sailing into the Bristol Channel, FitzRoy's legacy was therefore not an abstract scientific achievement, it was potentially a matter of life and death.