# Shipping Forecast's 'baffling' legacy (BBC News)



## SN NewsCaster (Mar 5, 2007)

A look at the enduring appeal of Radio 4's Shipping Forecast, as the station celebrates its 40th anniversary.

More from BBC News...


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## K urgess (Aug 14, 2006)

The very mention of "North Utsire, South Utsire, Viking, Cromarty, Forth, Humber,......" is enough to transport me back 40 years to a heaving deck in the North Sea, or the Irish Sea or the Western Approaches.
I'm glad it's still a popular and necessary part of some people's days.


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## billyboy (Jul 6, 2005)

Being a rock dodger it was Thames, Dover, white, portland. southwest force 8 freshening. gusting to 10 that used to worry me. Love to be able to hear those forecasts again though. (wee bit out of range over here)


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## Gavin Gait (Aug 14, 2005)

Used to hear "There are warnings of gales in ALL area's except..." far too many times when I was a fisherman. We used to have a note book up in the wheelhouse with all the areas marking in and we used to put the date and time of the forecast in the top of the page and the forecast below it so the Skipper knew what was coming ( although most of the time its was "it wont be as bad as that keep fishing"..... )

Davie(Jester) (Smoke)


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## K urgess (Aug 14, 2006)

You can read it *here*, Billy, and it gives you a link to listen to it live if you're around at the right time.
Oh, the wonders of the internet(LOL)

Cheers


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

There are a few new areas from when I used to listen to it: N. Utsire, S. Utsire, Trafalgar, Fitzroy. Wonder how Fitzroy got its name. Is someone in the Met Office from Melbourne?

John T.


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## Steve Woodward (Sep 4, 2006)

There is a book 'Attention all shipping' by Charlie Connelly, very good read in which he journeys to the shipping forcast places or areas and describes how they came about.


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## Ian (Mar 27, 2004)

Ah!! But... to separate the men from the boys... who can remember it being read by Alvar Liddell and John Snagge? The forecast ceased to have any meaning when those glorious voices retired.


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## K urgess (Aug 14, 2006)

Of course, the news and the shipping forecast were never the same again.


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## G0SLP (Sep 4, 2007)

trotterdotpom said:


> There are a few new areas from when I used to listen to it: N. Utsire, S. Utsire, Trafalgar, Fitzroy. Wonder how Fitzroy got its name. Is someone in the Met Office from Melbourne?
> 
> John T.


From Admiral Fitzroy, as far as I know. (He of the mercury column barometer).

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/tempusfugit/marine/notes.htm

Hope this helps.

Mark


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## Ian (Mar 27, 2004)

trotterdotpom said:


> There are a few new areas from when I used to listen to it: N. Utsire, S. Utsire, Trafalgar, Fitzroy. Wonder how Fitzroy got its name. Is someone in the Met Office from Melbourne?
> 
> John T.


Also new from my day. There is an explanation here:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_Forecast

of when Finisterre was renamed Fitzroy and the Utsire's started to be used by the Met Office, etc. etc. HTH.


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## Ian (Mar 27, 2004)

If I remember correctly, it was Alvar Liddell who used to end the summary with the words "Happy sailing, gentlemen" or "Pleasant sailing, gentlemen". He was at the end of his career by then, but I swear he was still reading the weather when I started my (short) career in 1960.



Steve Woodward said:


> There is a book 'Attention all shipping' by Charlie Connelly, very good read in which he journeys to the shipping forcast places or areas and describes how they came about.


I can also recommend this book as a good yarn for those winter evenings which are coming.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Thanks for the info Mark. I just looked it up and it turns out Fitzroy is the old "Finisterre" area which I'd forgotten about. They changed it so that it didn't get confused with the Spanish "Finisterre" area.

Another change that was made, before my time, was German Bight - it was called Heligoland up until the early '50s. Maybe they changed it because the RAF had a plan to bomb the island off the planet. Fortunately, that didn't come to fruition although there was a lot of damage done. This was in peacetime, I hasten to add. Just for interest, the island of Helgoland, spitting distance from the mouth of the Elbe River, was a British possession until Queen Victoria swapped it for Zanzibar.

Frank Phillips was the newsreader who finished the shipping forecast with: "Good night, gentlemen and good sailing." 

Wonder what happened to sea areas Jumper and Stocking, next to Fair Isle and Fishnet repectively.

John T.


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## Ian (Mar 27, 2004)

Well spotted, tdp, I'd forgotten Frank Phillips.


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