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Auction: 16043 - Autographs, Historical Documents, Ephemera and Postal History
Lot: 56

(x) Documents
Vice Admiral Robert FitzRoy, Captain of H.M.S. Beagle and Governor of New Zealand
1856-60 a group of three autograph letter to Henry Stilwell, the final being on Board of Trade letterhead and discusses meterological wind movements around the West Indies. Each letter signed "Robt FitzRoy". Usual folding creases

Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy RN (1805 – 1865) was an English officer of the Royal Navy and a scientist. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, FitzRoy's second expedition to Tierra del Fuego and the Southern Cone.



In 1850, FitzRoy retired from active service, partly due to ill health. The following year, in 1851, he was elected to the Royal Society with the support of 13 fellows, including Charles Darwin. As the protégé of Francis Beaufort, in 1854, FitzRoy was appointed, on the recommendation of the President of the Royal Society, as chief of a new department to deal with the collection of weather data at sea. His title was Meteorological Statist to the Board of Trade, and he had a staff of three. This was the forerunner of the modern Meteorological Office. He arranged for captains of ships to provide information, with tested instruments being loaned for this purpose, and for computation of the data collected. FitzRoy soon began to work on strategies to make weather information more widely available for the safety of shipping and fishermen. He directed the design and distribution of a type of barometer which, on his recommendation, was fixed at every port to be available to crews for consultation before setting out to sea. Stone housings for such barometers are still visible at many fishing harbours. The invention of several different types of barometers was attributed to him. These became popular and continued in production into the 20th century, characteristically engraved with Admiral FitzRoy's special remarks on interpretation, such as: "When rising: In winter the rise of the barometer presages frost." A terrible storm in 1859, which caused the loss of the Royal Charter, inspired FitzRoy to develop charts to allow predictions to be made, which he called "forecasting the weather", thus coining the term "weather forecast". Fifteen land stations were established to use the new telegraph to transmit to him daily reports of weather at set times. The first daily weather forecasts were published in The Times in 1861. The 1859 storm resulted in the Crown distributing storm glasses, then known as "FitzRoy's storm barometers", to many small fishing communities around the British Isles. In 1860, the following year, FitzRoy introduced a system of hoisting storm warning cones at the principal ports when a gale was expected. He ordered fleets to stay in port under these conditions. The Weather Book, which he published in 1863, was far in advance of the scientific opinion of the time. Queen Victoria once sent messengers to FitzRoy’s home requesting a weather forecast for a crossing she was about to make to the Isle of Wight.

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