Hi Harry, I think if you have a listen to BBC radio 4 shipping forecast in early morning and late evening, they still use the same format. Much more abbreviated than your suggested examples.

 

Thanks, Jim. I had imagined that the w/t wx tx might be in a different format - but, meanwhile will assume they are similar. On a tangent to this: When deep sea we would get sets of code that would be sent to the chartroom for conversion into isobars etc.

 

Hi guys.

Have a look at the BBC Wx site - you will find the print-outs for the current shipping fcsts and TTT gale wngs.

Do FM22A & FM45 ring a bell?

Still imprinted on my brain!

 

Thanks for the response, Pippin. I'll now visit that BBC site. Those FM22A etc don't ring bells just now - will have to look into those.

 

Shipping Forecast - BBC Weather

Specialist forecasts and gale warnings for 31 sea areas covering the waters around the British Isles.

www.bbc.co.uk

The same format is used but the sub-headings (Wind, Sea State etc.) were not broadcast, neither by the BBC nor the coast stations.

 

Thanks, Ron. That is useful and brings clarity.

 

If one was on an OBS Reporting Ship then the reports were coded by the Deck Officers into FM22A.
When we were off the beaten shipping lanes on other ships I would pester the said Deck Officers to compile OBS so I could send them off.
That would mean more accurate Wx fcsts, of benefit to all.

Those synoptic charts were received in FM55 and decoded by the aforementioned Deck Officers - reluctantly.
Decoding those was a long-winded job and would only be done if the Wx fcst looked bad and the Old Man demanded .
I rather enjoyed decoding them myself and drawing the surface analysis out on a perspex sheet.

So, now you know!

PS - That was long before N & S Utsire, FitzRoy and Trafalgar were added to the fcst areas.

 

If one was on an OBS Reporting Ship then the reports were coded by the Deck Officers into FM22A.
When we were off the beaten shipping lanes on other ships I would pester the said Deck Officers to compile OBS so I could send them off.
That would mean more accurate Wx fcsts, of benefit to all.

Those synoptic charts were received in FM55 and decoded by the aforementioned Deck Officers - reluctantly.
Decoding those was a long-winded job and would only be done if the Wx fcst looked bad and the Old Man demanded .
I rather enjoyed decoding them myself and drawing the surface analysis out on a perspex sheet.
PS - That was long before N & S Utsire, FitzRoy and Trafalgar were added to the fcst areas.

Occasionally in the meteorolgy exam in F G Masters ticket you were given a set of codes and and a code book and had to
draw a weather map and give a weather forecast. Hell of a lot easier than a lot of questions. When
doing my masters we had this and you could see the smiles on all our faces as this ws a "Doddle"

 

I recall being Junior RO on Esso Milford Haven/GWFH (1975) and being coached to decode GKA's weather such that I could create a rather fetching chart of the Northern Hemisphere weather. Suited my arty nature, I suppose. Had a nice A3 laminated sheet that I plotted Isobars et al using Chinagraph, and the Bridge humoured me with my skills. I cannot say the same for Lamport and Holt's Cyril, perhaps driven by the thought that North Utsire didnt have much value when you were berthed in Barbados. Beats doodling, I suppose.

 

Ah - the good old =OBS=METBRACK=

Did the chart room have special, err, charts upon which you drew the synopsis or did you pencil it in on the main navigational chart?

 

Special charts - the 2nd mate would have shot you if you used the main chart!

 

"We had a wad of Atlantic met chart blanks."

Not much good for the Indian and Pacific Oceans!!

 

Ivernia didn't stray beyond the North Atlantic !!!!!

 

I'm still messing about with memoir and wonder if any of you chaps recall the form of weather reports in 50s/60s - say from Cullercoats GCC. I've imagined something like this:

27 February 1959. Outlook for the next 24 hours. TYNE, HUMBER, FORTIES: wind SW 3 or 4, becoming SE later. Sea state moderate. Precipitation: showers. Visibility good, occasionally moderate. FISHER, wind SE 3 or 4. Sea moderate. Clear, drizzle later. Visibility good to moderate. DOGGER, GERMAN BIGHT: SE 2 or 3. Sea smooth or slight. Fog. Visibility poor.

I hope to write about the experience of North Sea fog, and so I've invented this, but am probably wide of the mark. I've searched around on the net, but find no archived examples.

In the part TYNE, HUMBER, FORTIES: wind SW 3 or 4, becoming SE later. they wouldn't use 'becoming'. It would be either backing (anticlockwise movement) or veering (clockwise movement) The direction of the shift in the wind could be critical.

 

Thank you, Quiney - you are a gent. I now understand why veering is important . . . in terms of an influx of warm air over a cold ocean and the conditions that might arise. My imagined weather example needs a recast.

Harry

 

I'm still messing about with memoir and wonder if any of you chaps recall the form of weather reports in 50s/60s - say from Cullercoats GCC. I've imagined something like this:

27 February 1959. Outlook for the next 24 hours. TYNE, HUMBER, FORTIES: wind SW 3 or 4, becoming SE later. Sea state moderate. Precipitation: showers. Visibility good, occasionally moderate. FISHER, wind SE 3 or 4. Sea moderate. Clear, drizzle later. Visibility good to moderate. DOGGER, GERMAN BIGHT: SE 2 or 3. Sea smooth or slight. Fog. Visibility poor.

I hope to write about the experience of North Sea fog, and so I've invented this, but am probably wide of the mark. I've searched around on the net, but find no archived examples.

Well now, I can tell you I experienced North Sea fog one foggy day in August 1947. Myself and 3 other members of the 1st Tyne Sea Scout Troop of Newcastle got lost in a pea-souper trying to get from St Abbs to Eyemouth in a row-boat with an outboard-motor that conked out. I was the youngest at 14, the oldest was 16.
Lost all day, couldn't see a thing until we reached Berwick and were picked up by a fishing trawler that was looking for us. Our experience was written about in the Berwickshire News.

 

Four Castle class corvettes ( Castle-class corvette - Wikipedia ) were converted to weather ships in the late1950's. They were based in Greenock. I did my MN shoreside training at John G. Kincaids in Greenock and took this picture in 1975. I had a tour round one when it was alongside.

 

Interestingly enough the French Wx ships were called:

"Les frégates météorologiques"

They have preserved "France 1" at the Maritime Museum in La Rochelle.

It is well worth a visit.

 

I might be right, then I might be wrong!
Most shipping companies I sailed with participated in OBS and AMVER.
OBS sent thru US coast stations were used to update AMVER SURPIC.
I recall that the logbook of the daily meteo observations were submitted to Bracknell, there being a prize for the best presented book.
Our third mate on one ship prized his log book, copying each watches wx OBS into the log in copperplate style print. That is until the night tray kettle took a tumble spilling its contents over said book. Not a happy happy.
In my time I copied the OBS presenting the codes to the bridge. I only recall one occasion where the isobars crossed over each other. Receiving the codes was quite boring, must have nodded off, either that or it was a very complex wx pattern.

Peter

 

Greetings, Curious and not sure of relevance , BUT in Aug 1951 whilst a child of 8, I was a passenger on Strathnaver from Bombay to Sydney in mid Indian ocean when I heard a p.a. broadcast mid afternoon " In 15 to 20 minutes we will encounter much rougher conditions" It has puzzled me (now a retired Master in Sydney (Australia ) as to how the officers came by that information. It was fact it did get noticeably rougher Tugboat Tom

 

Tom, if they had radar they would have seen the squall ahead of them. Squalls are common in the Indian Ocean at that time of year. If no radar, they could probably see the squall visually anyway. No magic to it really.

 

Tom, if they had radar they would have seen the squall ahead of them. Squalls are common in the Indian Ocean at that time of year. If no radar, they could probably see the squall

When the crew were out painting and a squall was seen, it was often a case of course change to skirt it, couldn’t have rain stop play

 

Don't spoil the magic for that 8 year old boy!!!

 

My good friend Graham Mercer GPK/GM4BES, now sadly SK was a real character.

I remember him once sending an R/T Wx fcst from Portpatrick Radio on 1882kHz.

"Low 999 moving north and losing it's identity"

To which Graham added "I know how it feels!"!!!!!

Priceless!

 

Would you believe that I actually have in my collection of Marconi Marine gear - a "FORECASTER" Rx complete with Muirhead Mufax wet-paper unit.
I still have some of the rolls but as they dry out I have to re-wet them before firing it all up.

 

The "Forecaster" receiver was designed and manufactured by the Westminster Chassis Company of East Molesey (also the source of the Kestrel range of radiotelephone transmitter/receivers). MIMCo used two models of Muirhead wet paper recorders with different paper widths, the larger of 18 inches and a more popular (cheaper) one of 9 inches.
Eventually both were superceded by a single, dry paper, 12-inch combined receiver/recording machine produced by Koden in Japan.

 

Later, when i did an HND in communications the younger students were in askance on the thought of wet paper types. Hope yours worked.

 

Thanks for the info Ron.

I have the (cheaper) D9 unit.

Looking inside the FORECASTER it is fairly obviously NOT of MWT manufacture, let alone Eddystone.

Marconiman - had your HND students not heard of capacitors, sorry condensers, being measured in jars - because that's what they were?!!!

 

What I remember most about weather fax receivers at sea is having my turn at GKC come up half way through a picture and having to put black bands across an otherwise perfect copy.

 

Pleased to see that the UK is using Celsius...now, get rid of miles and you will have caught up to the rest of the civilised world...



(yes, I know that cost of change to km would be prohibitive...)

 

Most people do not realise that from the very first Motorway in the United Kingdom - the M1 - the mile post markers are in fact NOT in miles, yards, furlongs, perches or even chains.
They have always been in kilometres and metres.
Even the "countdown" III, II, I signs for slip roads & etc are 300, 200, 100 metres respectively.

Weirdly it is just the Destination signs that indicate distances in miles.

It's a long time since I was at sea as R/O so with all the fancy Sat-Nav stuff do they still use nautical miles?!!

 

Interesting!

Yes, they still use NM at sea (and in the air).

 

The Nautical Mile is used for one very good reason - It is based on and directly corresponds to one minute of latitude at the Equator. So having degrees and miles on the same page makes sense, particularly on great circle navigation.

The Kilometre has a similar definition- one ten thousandth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator.

NM - East West. Km - North South.

 

Slight correction - one minute of latitude at 45 degrees north or south. Something to do with an expanding waistline and flattened ends

 

I’m sure I worked most of you Guys while manning 4YB, 4YD 4YC and 4YE as a USCG Radio operator mostly sailing out of NY and for a short bit, New London, Conn. was during late 50s, 60 and early 70s. I surely appreciate the short notes you would QSP via a post card to Wives and girl friends. de N4NMK 73