The Navan-born Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort KCB FRS FRGS FRAS MRIA (1774-1857) was a man of very many interests, some of them a little startling. His work as the Hydrographer of the Navy is remembered in the name of the extra-deep Beaufort Dyke in the North Channel, which was used after the end of the Hitler Unpleasantness as a dump for unused explosives, thereby making the prospect of any Ireland-Scotland bridge or tunnel an even more exciting challenge.
Be that as it may, Beaufort is now best remembered for his wind strength scale. These days, we may be bewildered by having to gauge wind power in terms of measured metres per second or miles per hour or knots or whatever. But Beaufort cut through all this by realising that it was the pressure exerted by the wind, rather than its absolute speed, which was the key to it all. He illustrated this by showing the effect his different scales would have on factors such as the sea state, the amount of sail a first class wind-driven warship could carry, and whether or not fishing boats had scurried for the nearest port, or else had resigned themselves to riding it out, lying a-hull.
As we’ve mentioned here in Afloat.ie ad nauseam, Beaufort’s Force 6 (now understood as winds of 22-27 knots) is actually exerting 200 times the pressure of his Force 2 (4-5 knots), so it’s far indeed from being no more than five times the strength of a Force 2. And the more you sail, the more you realise how well Beaufort reflected the reality rather then some laboratory re-construction.
So how do you suppose he might assess the current COVID-19 situation and the arrival of the Omicron version with its 36 variants? These days, we’re all world-standard epidemiologists. But Beaufort’s originality and success in his own fields of study suggests that his approach might produce interesting and possibly even optimistic results. Omicron may indeed be even more easily transmitted than previous mutations. But reports suggest that its adverse effect on patients is less intense. We reckon that Admiral Beaufort might suggest that in terms of effect - his key metric - the virus and its pandemic are now in decline.
