Without a sailor's knowledge, few would know what to expect from a Force 6 gale. But if you were told the observed results of this wind were large branches in motion; telegraph wires whistle; and umbrellas used with difficulty you’d have a far greater understanding of the elements. In 1805, Francis Beaufort, later to attain the rank of Admiral in the British Navy, created a scale to define the force of wind without the use of instruments. The scale utilised the one constant every sailor had: a ship.
The Beaufort Scale
In the 18th century, wind was the oil that powered man’s machinery on the high seas. Francis Beaufort (1774–1857) was an Irish mapmaker who joined the Royal Navy and led a life of observation and expression.* The scale he devised did not employ an anemometer to measure the wind strength because so many sailors worked without access to instruments. No, Beaufort decided that the senses: our eyes, ears, fingers and brain would produce a far more accurate scale for the universal understanding of the effects of the wind. On a frigate: Beaufort’s 1831 version of the wind scale Force 2 decreed a light breeze provided the sea conditions in which “a man-of-war with all sail set and clean full would go in smooth water from 1 to 2 knots”.
In 1838, the scale was adopted by the Royal Navy and meteorologists today are gleaning historical data from logbooks that used the Beaufort Scale to compile an accurate history of weather conditions from that era. The ability for man to listen to the universe has rather been forgotten in our modern world where many people live in various air-conditioned spaces and only know the outside temperature from checking a website. By using Beaufort, the effects certain levels of wind activity had on the ship meant anyone could fathom the relative strength of a stiff breeze.
Wind Effects on Sail, Land & Sea
Later, when three-masted frigates became a craft of the past, the scale was adapted to describe effects on the sea itself. So, Beaufort’s Force 2 sea description now reads “small wavelets, still short, but more pronounced; crests have a glassy appearance and do not break”. Then, in 1906, a committee of engineers compiled the superbly brief but all-encompassing words (just 110 in total) to describe the effects on land from wind conditions from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane).
Wind & Weather
Although named after Beaufort, it was actually this group of engineers who closely observed weather conditions across the entire British Isles before being gathered together by the Meteorological Office to stump up the definitions that remain in use today. Scott Huler, an American copy editor came across Beaufort’s scale one day and was struck by the poetic brevity of the definitions. His book Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, and How a 19th-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry (2004) is an ode in itself to the words of these scientists. For instance, he points out that the definition of Force 5, fresh breeze begins iambic; “small trees in leaf begin to sway” and continues in trochaic pentameter; “crested wavelets form on inland waters”.
Measuring Force by Observation
Windsurfers, canoeists, even gardeners have compiled their own variations on Beaufort’s theme. Enthusiasts across the globe have defined what weather conditions are worth getting out of bed for and what it might be safer to stay on shore for, from foam being flicked off beer at the ballpark to garden furniture relocating to the next county. And it isn’t just applicable to the weather.