Sir Francis Beaufort

Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, FRS, FRGS (7 May 1774 – 17 December 1857) was an Irish hydrographer and officer in the British Royal Navy. Beaufort was the creator of the Beaufort scale for indicating wind force. From the circle representing a weather station, a stave (as in musical notation) extends, with one or more half or whole barbs. For example, a stave with 3 ½ barbs represents Beaufort seven on the scale, decoded as 32–38 mph, or a "Fresh Gale".

Biography

Beaufort was descended from Huguenots who fled France after the terrible St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre eventually settling in Ireland. Young Francis' father, Daniel Augustus Beaufort, was Rector of Navan. Born in Ireland, Francis left school and went to sea at the age of fourteen, but became sufficiently self-educated to associate with some of the greatest scientists (e.g. Herschel, Airy, Babbage) of his time.

As a consequence of being shipwrecked at age fifteen, in peril of starvation, due to a faulty sea chart, Beaufort became obsessed with the importance of education and the development of accurate charts for those risking the seas.

Beginning on a merchant ship of the British East India Company, Beaufort rose (during the Napoleonic Wars) to midshipman, lieutenant, commander and captain in the Royal Navy. Whereas other wartime officers sought leisurely pursuits at each opportunity, Beaufort spent his leisure time taking soundings and bearings, making astronomical observations to determine longitude and latitude, and measuring shorelines. His results were compiled in new charts.

In 1811–1812, Beaufort charted and explored southern Anatolia, locating many classical ruins. His work was interrupted (at Ayas, near Adana) by an attack by Turks on the crew of his boat, during which he received a serious bullet wound in the hip. He returned to England, and drew up the charts himself, also publishing in 1817 his book Karamania; or a brief description of the South Coast of Asia Minor, and of the Remains of Antiquity.

In 1829, at age 55 (retirement age for most administrative contemporaries), Beaufort became the Hydrographer of the British Admiralty, remaining so for 25 years, longer than his predecessors or successors. Beaufort converted what had been a minor chart repository into the finest surveying and charting institution in the world. Some of his excellent charts are still used, 200 years after he created them.

During his tenure, the great astronomical observatories at Greenwich, England, and the Cape of Good Hope, Africa, were placed under Beaufort's administration. Beaufort directed some of the major maritime explorations and experiments of that period. For eight years, Beaufort directed the Arctic Council during its search for the explorer, Sir John Franklin, lost in his last polar voyage to search for the legendary Northwest Passage.

As a council member of the Royal Society, the Royal Observatory, and the Royal Geographic Society (which he helped found), Beaufort used his position and prestige as a scientist to act as a "middleman" for many scientists of his time. Beaufort represented the geographers, astronomers, oceanographers, geodesists, and meteorologists to that government agency, the Hydrographic Office, which could support their research. In this capacity, Beaufort approved Charles Darwin as naturalist on FitzRoy's voyage to the Galápagos Islands.

Overcoming many objections, Beaufort obtained government support for the Antarctic voyage of 1839–1843 by James Clark Ross for extensive measurements of terrestrial magnetism, coordinated with similar measurements in Europe and Asia. (This is comparable to the International Geophysical Year of our time.)

Beaufort promoted the development of reliable tide tables around British shores, motivating similar research for Europe and North America. Aiding friend and fellow scientist, William Whewell, Beaufort gained the support of the Duke of Wellington in expanding record-keeping at 200 coastguard stations of Great Britain. Beaufort gave enthusiastic support to his friend, the Astronomer Royal and noted mathematician George Airy in achieving a historic period of measurements by the Greenwich and Good Hope observatories.

Beaufort also endured the political struggles of government administration and naval promotion. Long denied deserved advancement, these injustices became notorious to his fellow officers. Knighted in 1848, he became the "Sir Francis Beaufort" known to posterity.

Beaufort trained Robert FitzRoy who was put in temporary command of the survey ship HMS Beagle after her previous captain committed suicide. When FitzRoy was reappointed as Commander for the famous second voyage of the Beagle he requested Beaufort "that a well-educated and scientific gentleman be sought" as a companion on the voyage. Beaufort's enquiries led to an invitation to Charles Darwin who later drew on his discoveries in formulating the theory of evolution he presented in his book The Origin of Species.

Beaufort's extant correspondence of 200+ letters and journals contained portions written in personal cipher, which his biographer deciphered and published for the first time. Beaufort altered the Vigenère cipher, by reversing the cipher alphabet; the resulting variant is named after him.

He died on 17 December 1857 at age 83 in Hove, Sussex, England. He is buried in the church gardens of St John at Hackney, London, where his tomb may still be seen.

Beaufort tomb in St John's Church Gardens

Eponym

Beaufort, like other patrons of exploration, has had his name applied to many discoveries. Among these:

• Beaufort Sea (arm of Arctic Ocean)
• Beaufort Island, Antarctic
• Beaufort Inlet, North Atlantic Ocean

References

• Alfred Friendly. Beaufort of the Admiralty. Random House, New York, 1973.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (sub nomine)

See also

• Substitution cipher

External links

• Maritime Institute of Ireland

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