Great Storm 1859: Rear Admiral Robert FitzRoy

Description

This photograph was taken by the company Maull and Polybank in the early 1860s. At this time, Robert FitzRoy was developing the meteorological department of the Board of Trade and had been tasked with implementing a storm warning service to help save the lives of mariners.

Robert FitzRoy was born 5th July 1805, at Ampton Hall, Suffolk, into an aristocratic family. His father, General Lord Charles FitzRoy, was the son of Augustus Henry, third Duke of Grafton and his mother was Lady Frances Anne Stewart, eldest daughter of the first Marquis of Londonderry. FitzRoy attended school at Rottingdean and Harrow (1817-18) and later enrolled at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, at the age of 13.

At age 19, FitzRoy was assigned to HMS THETIS and spent three years patrolling the coast of Cornwall assisting the Customs Service against smugglers. The THETIS was then posted to South America, where FitzRoy soon came to the attention of Admiral Sir Robert Otway who appointed him his flag lieutenant on HMS GANGES. Not long after, HMS BEAGLE (part of a two-ship operation surveying the coast of South America) returned to Rio de Janiero for supplies. Otway chose FitzRoy to take command as naval surveyor for the notorious Cape Horn and southern lands of Tiero De Fuego. HMS BEAGLE returned to England for refitting in 1831 and, on this second surveying voyage to South America, FitzRoy took a companion in Charles Darwin. FitzRoy's tasks included collecting a string of astrological observations that would establish a set of reliable longitudinal readings for the entire globe. The ship returned to England in 1837. FitzRoy was presented with a gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society for his endeavours and published his Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of HMS ADVENTURE and BEAGLE, in four volumes. Darwin contributed to the third volume - Journal and Remarks 1832-1836. Some years later, in 1858, Sir Francis Beaufort (best remembered for his scale of wind speeds) reported to Parliament that 'from the Equator to Cape Horn, and from thence round to the river Plata on the eastern side of America, all that is immediately wanted has already been achieved by the splendid survey of Captain Robert FitzRoy'. Darwin had returned from the South American voyage a fully-fledged natural scientist, with extensive collections, notebooks and sketches that would provide the inspiration for his theories about the evolution of species which was to be published a year later.

In 1841, FitzRoy became a Tory Member of Parliament for County Durham and was responsible introducing a Parliamentary bill for requiring and regulating examination of Masters and Chief Mates of Merchant Vessels. It was widely seen as one way to reduce the numbers of shipwrecks and led to the Mercantile Marine Act 1845.

In February 1843, FitzRoy became the second governor of New Zealand. He found the country in poverty and disarray, and was more inclined to support the Maoris' cause against the interests of white settlers and missionaries. His views lead to enmity with the traders of the New Zealand Company, who had strong representation in Parliament. His lack of communication with the colonial secretary, Lord Stanley, eventually led to his dismissal from the post in 1845. Back home, FitzRoy set about the compilation of the volume of Sailing Directions for South America. He was also appointed as superintendent at Woolwich Dockyard for the fitting out of a new steam-driven warship called the ARGONAUT. When the ship's trials were complete, he retired once more citing poor health and personal problems. Indeed, a year later, his wife Elizabeth died leaving him with four children to care for. His only consolation during this sad period was being elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1851.

It was through a suggestion by the Secretary of the Royal Society, Colonel Edward Sabine, that FitzRoy was identified as the right person to organize the Board of Trade's new meteorological department. Sabine ran the Royal Society's observatory at Kew, which was the chief testing and regulating centre for astronomical and meteorological instruments.Sabine had been in correspondence with Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, head of the United States Naval Observatory and Depot for Charts and Instruments. It was Maury who had instigated an international conference on meteorological studies in 1853, at which the British Government had put its name to establishing an official Government meteorological office. The brief for the work to be undertaken by the new meteorological office was to be set by the Royal Society. Through Sabine's recommendation, the First Lord of the Admiralty wrote to offer FitzRoy the role with a salary of £500 per year in January 1854. By November of the same year, FitzRoy had forged ahead by soliciting the help of naval and mercantile captains to gather weather observations. He had devised a weather log and drafted instructions for taking observations. He had appointed agents around the country and investigated the supply of new instruments to ships. By December, the Board of Trade's meteorological department had a headquarters - 2 Parliament Street, Westminster. Four additional staff had been appointed - William Patrickson, draughtsman; Thomas H Babbington and Frederick R Townsend, clerks; and William Leaker, statistician.

FitzRoy and his team set about accumulating and reviewing hundreds of naval ship logs to gain a better understanding of weather patterns from the observations made by captains. He corresponded with Maury and other scientists working on the same problems and received many letters from private individuals who had their own theories about the weather.

In the summer of 1856, a former sea captain Henry Clifton Sorby wrote to FitzRoy of his ideas that the air moved over the earth in a series of waves akin to the swells and troughs of the sea. This idea fired FitzRoy's imagination. He had the notion that, if ship captains and shore weather stations, could be encouraged to take reading simultaneously at set times, then differences in barometer readings would allow the passage of these waves and troughs to be tracked across the Atlantic and across Britain. Over the Christmas of 1856, Fitzroy drafted a proposal for what he called simultaneous pictures of the atmosphere.

However, it was not greeted by the Royal Society or the Board of Trade with much enthusiasm as they believed that he would be unable to gain sufficient accurate readings across such wide areas of land and sea. FitzRoy did not let the matter rest entirely, but began to work up the observations of the storm that had devastated the Royal Naval fleet sent to the Crimea in 1854 to test his theory. He drew on a new work by German meteorological scientist Henry Dove, called The Law of Storms, to continue the development of his ideas.

Criticism was building for the new meteorological department - it had been in existence for 3 years and had yet to produce anything by way of a storm warning . In response, in 1857, Fitzroy produced a report of what had been accomplished so far and continued to put in place a network of weather stations for simultaneous readings. He continued to develop ways in which to represent the readings on new Synchronous Wind Chart.

In April 1858, Fitzroy published a small book called Barometer and Weather Guide, which was written in plain language primarily for fishermen and was augmented by seaman sayings which rang true, such as 'Long foretold, long last, Short Notice, soon past' and When rise begins, after low, squalls expect and clear blow'. FitzRoy instigated the installation of barometers at ports, available for all to consult. He hoped that these barometers would stop small fishing boats being caught out by sudden bad weather. FitzRoy was supported and assisted by the British and Scottish Meteorological Societies and by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

The loss of the ROYAL CHARTER in October 1859 sent a shock wave through the country and created a public clamour for urgent action. At FitzRoy's request, the meteorological department was inundated with instrument readings taken before, during, and after the storm by organisations and individuals from all over the country. The team set to work shifting and plotting the data and came up with a chart which was printed and available very quickly. Hence, FitzRoy was able to demonstrate the effectiveness of his simultaneous readings and that these readings could be gathered and processed quickly by his office. In December, FitzRoy submitted a proposal to set up a telegraph warnings service and was given the go ahead for a trial.

On 7 February 1861, the first warning was sent to the ports by telegraph warning of a storm which occurred two days later. On 1st August 1861, Fitzroy began to slip general weather forecasts into daily newspapers suggesting what the weather would be like for the next two days.

In 1863, he published The Weather Book: A Manual for Practical Meteorology. In Chapter 1 he wrote 'This small work is intended for many, rather than for a few, with an earnest hope of its utility in everyday life'. The manual still underpins much of meteorological science today.

However, there were detractors who said that storm warnings led to vessels staying in port when they could be sailing and earning money. The public retaliated with amateur meteorologists sending him their own observations as to whether his interpretations had coincided with their own.

This gave FitzRoy the confidence to write to The Times saying that no large disasters had befalling the Northumberland and Filey coast since the first issue of his storm warnings. In addition, questionnaires completed by sailors and fishermen at various ports contained overwhelming endorsement for the Storm Warning Service.

Despite this, in April 1864, the Board of Trade published a report criticising the accuracy of forecasts. In one sea area, the Firth of Forth, they could be shown to be as low as 41% which caused FitzRoy a great deal of personal worry about his methods and whether he should send as many warnings as he did. FitzRoy was also taken to task for exceeding his brief from the Royal Society and his budget by compiling daily weather forecasts rather than focusing on the storm warning service. By the end of the year, the Board of Trade had cut funding for eight of FitzRoy's essential data gathering outposts. Early in 1865, the strain on FitzRoy led him to retire from his duties. On Saturday 1 May 1865, he accepted an invitation to dine with his former American counterpart, Captain Matthew Maury, who was passing through London. Some aspect of this meeting on top of the accumulated strain of seeing the department's work being dismantled greatly upset FitzRoy.

The Times on Tuesday 2 May 1865 contained the following notice:

'Yesterday morning a painful feeling of regret agitated the whole of the officials of the Board of Trade, on assembling at Whitehall, when the melancholy news of the suicide of Vice Admiral FitzRoy, chief of the meteorological division of the Government department, became known. He cut his throat at his residence, Lyndhurst House, Norwood, on Sunday morning.'

After FitzRoy's death, his detractors (including members from the Royal Society) were able to discredit his weather interpretations further. It was suggested that the Board of Trade's
meteorological department be used just for the gathering of data, whilst the Royal Society's Observatory at Kew should undertake interpretations. The dispute over FitzRoy's interpretation techniques continued until 29 November 1866, when the Board of Trade announced that the storm warning service would be discontinued from 7 December.

In response, the Board of Trade and Royal Society were inundated with letters from the public in support for the storm warning service condemning its cessation. On 3 January 1867, it was announced that a new Meteorological Office was to be set up under Robert Henry Scott, with Captain Henry Toynbee in charge of collecting marine observations and Balfour Steward at Kew collating land observations and calibrating instruments.

Sources:
Halford, Pauline, 2004, Storm Warning: The Origins of the Weather Forecast, pub. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, Gloucester.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Robert FitzRoy
FitzRoy, R, 1863, The Weather Book: The Weather Book: A Manual for Practical Meteorology
The Meteorological Office http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/
Walker, J M, 2012, History of the Meteorological Office


This image is available for use for educational purposes from the National Portrait Gallery, London, under a Creative Commons license.
Please contact the National Portrait Library for permission for commerical and other uses.
Image reference: NPG x13984

In February 2002, the BBC reported that a weather forecast area was to be renamed FitzRoy. What was the previous name of the area?

What else has been named after Robert FitzRoy?

• http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp83396/robert-fitzroy-f... (link opens in new window)