152 ROBERT FITZROY
A
century and a half ago,
notions of weather
prediction were deemed
little more than folklore. The man
who changed that and gave us
modern weather forecasting was
British naval officer and scientist
Captain Robert FitzRoy.
FitzRoy is better known today
as the captain of the Beagle, the
ship that carried Charles Darwin
on the voyage that led to his theory
of evolution by natural selection.
Yet FitzRoy was a remarkable
scientist in his own right.
FitzRoy was just 26 when he
sailed from England with Darwin
in 1831. Yet he had already served
more than a decade at sea, and
had studied at the Royal Naval
College at Greenwich, where he
was the first candidate to pass the
lieutenant’s exam with perfect
marks. He had even commanded
the Beagle on an earlier survey trip
around South America, where the
importance of studying the weather
was impressed upon him. His
ship almost met with disaster in
a violent wind off the coast of
Patagonia after he had ignored
the warning signs of falling
pressure on the ship’s barometer.Naval weather pioneers
It was no coincidence that many
of the first breakthroughs in
weather forecasting came from
naval officers. Knowing what
weather lay ahead was crucial in
the days of sailing ships. Missing
a good wind could have huge
financial consequences—and
being caught at sea in a storm
could be disastrous.
Two naval officers in particular
had already made significant
contributions. One was IrishRobert FitzRoy Born in 1805 in Suffolk, England,
to an aristocratic family, Robert
FitzRoy joined the Navy at just
12 years old. He went on to
serve many years at sea as an
outstanding sea captain. He
captained the Beagle on two major
survey voyages to South America,
including the around-the-world
voyage with Charles Darwin.
FitzRoy was, however, a devout
Christian who opposed Darwin’s
theory of evolution. After leaving
active service in the Navy, FitzRoy
became governor of New Zealand,
where his even-handed treatment
of the Maori earned him theresentment of the settlers.
He returned to England in
1848 to command the Navy’s
first steamship, and was
appointed head of the British
Meteorological Office when it
was established in 1854. There
he developed the methods that
became the foundation of
scientific weather forecasting.Key works1839 Narrative of the Voyages
of the Beagle
1860 The Barometer Manual
1863 The Weather BookIN CONTEXT
BRANCH
MeteorologyBEFORE
1643 Evangelista Torricelli
invents the barometer, which
measures air pressure.1805 Francis Beaufort
develops the Beaufort scale
of wind force.1847 Joseph Henry proposes
a telegraph link to warn the
eastern United States of
storms coming from the west.AFTER
1870 The US Army Signal
Corps begins creating weather
maps for the whole US.1917 The Bergen School
of Meteorology in Norway
develops the notion of
weather fronts.2001 Systems of Unified
Surface Analysis use powerful
computers to give highly
detailed local weather.With a barometer, two or
three thermometers, some
brief instructions, and an
attentive observation, not of
instruments only, but the sky
and atmosphere, one may
utilise Meteorology.
Robert FitzRoy