Gale Force 10: the life and legacy of Admiral Beaufort 1774–1857

Francis Beaufort, in common with most naval officers who served in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, sought the quick promotion, fame, glory and wealth that befell the lot of only a select few of his profession. And like many officers his ambitions for glory were for the most part frustrated by lack of opportunity rather than lack of zeal.

His reputation, however, rests on something far more substantial and lasting than the glory of arms, honourable though this might be. Beaufort was not only a very competent and widely-travelled seaman and naval officer, he was also a scientist, an author and the navy’s most important hydrographer. His most lasting contribution of course is the wind force scale that bears his name, familiar to everyone who has listened to the shipping forecast or takes an interest in meteorology.

Nicholas Courtney has written an excellent account of Beaufort’s life and achievements. More than this, however, Courtney has a real ability for storytelling and parts of this biography can be as gripping as the best of seafaring novels, a talent that keeps you turning the pages of Beaufort’s fascinating life.

Beaufort first went to sea in 1789 on a voyage that was to take him to the other side of the globe in the East Indiaman Vansittart. The ship was wrecked in the East Indies, having been instructed to undertake some surveying on behalf of the East India Company. This was Beaufort’s first taste of hydrography, as well as of the life of a sailor – an experience he was fortunate to survive. Joining the Navy the following year he was again lucky to survive a number of incidents, including a near drowning as well as being severely wounded and shot during a boarding operation in 1800.

Beaufort was not that well connected and could muster only limited influence and patronage. Yet when he managed to get command of the Woolwich in 1805 he was not pleased. The Woolwich was nothing more than a storeship, a command he considered somewhat beneath his dignity. As a result he penned the most immoderate letter to the Admiralty, one of many on a number of subjects where he felt slighted. The Admiralty seemed to take little notice of this outburst and was no doubt accustomed to receiving such letters from officers touchy about their honour and dignity. Courtney here and throughout gives us an interesting insight into the mind of a typical naval officer of the period.

Beaufort, however, seemed to warm to his command, reflected by Courtney in the delightful account of the Woolwich’s passage through the South Atlantic towards the Cape of Good Hope. It was on the Woolwich that Beaufort first committed an account of his wind force scale to the ship’s journal. He had previously met the hydrographer Alexander Dalrymple, whose own thoughts and writings on a wind force scale influenced Beaufort. Beaufort formalized the scale and adapted it by using the amount of sail carried by a man-of war to describe the force of the wind. The Dutch had been doing this already for some time, so Beaufort’s idea was hardly original and indeed it was to be several decades before the Beaufort Scale was officially adopted.

In his next command, the frigate Fredericksteen, Beaufort was directed to survey and chart the southern coast of Turkey. While ashore it was also a chance to study the artefacts of the ancient and classical world, an opportunity not to be missed by Beaufort and his officers. An incident on the Turkish coast in 1812 resulted in a wound and severe infection that put an end to Beaufort’s active career at sea. It was his subsequent  publication, in 1817, of Karamania, an account of his work on the Turkish coast, that brought him to the attention of the scientific community. Between then and his appointment as Hydrographer to the Navy in 1829, Beaufort produced dozens of new maps and charts.

However, it is as a hydrographer rather than a naval officer that Beaufort was to make his greatest contribution to both the navy and the maritime world. He was the navy’s hydrographer until 1855 during which many voyages of discovery, charting and surveying were carried out under his direction, from the Pacific to the Arctic. Many new and more accurate charts were produced including the entire coast of the British Isles.

It was also while hydrographer that in 1838, the Royal Navy adopted the Beaufort Scale to describe the force of the wind. It is for this that he is mostly remembered but it is only one of his important contributions.

Nicholas Courtney has written a well-researched and lively account of Francis Beaufort’s fascinating career.