'Defining the Wind' by Scott Huler

Everybody has heard of or has used the Beaufort Scale with its 13 categories of wind force.
My Mother used to turn on the radio to the Shipping forecast most evenings and as children we were captivated by the names of the shipping areas -  Rockall, Malin, Hebrides, Sole, Fastnet, Lundy – as well as imagining the Storm forces as they were read out.



0 Calm Sea like a mirror. Smoke rises vertically
0      
12  Hurricane force   The air is filled with foam and spray; sea is completely white with driving spray; visibility very seriously affected.
Devastation.


But was it really Beaufort who devised it?


This book is a light-hearted quest by the author to research the origins of, what he considers, some of the best descriptive prose ever written.


I thoroughly enjoyed the read and the turns and twists of the research ‘plot’ and the delving into the practicalities of organising and recording maritime exploration within an expanding empire. Certainly, Beaufort was a remarkable man of many parts for whom we can thank, even today, for the detailed and accurate coastal maps he drew from around the globe. He also realised that it was imperative for seamen to have a universal and uniform way of describing the state of the sea and, though the idea of a wind scale had been mooted by many others before him, it was through his efforts that his wind scale was officially adopted by the Royal Navy, and thus the World.