# Weather ships



## Worldspan (Jan 2, 2012)

I was always fascinated by the weather ships - probably because of their exotic call signs. Did anyone serve on a weather ship? I'd be interested to know whether the ops were R/Os from the MN. How many ops did they have and what kind of gear was installed? What were the conditions like? How long were the chaps out there and how were they transferred? I seem to remember working one en route to Goose Bay when I was in the RAF.

W


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## holland25 (Nov 21, 2007)

You can find out all about them at http://www.weatherships.co.uk/,at least the British ones.


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## Worldspan (Jan 2, 2012)

Thanks, but that will have to wait. This server doesn't carry that page.
W


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## Worldspan (Jan 2, 2012)

OK, all is now well. I clicked on the link and included the comma!
W


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## Gulpers (Sep 8, 2005)

Yep, correct link *here* (Thumb)


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## Derek Roger (Feb 19, 2005)

Thomas and Brocklebanks ship MV Mahout was a weather ship .
I served on her twice .
She had the record at the time 1966 /1967 of having recorded the all time low barometer reading ( during a cyclone off India if my memory serves me well ? )

I was an engineer ' but there are Sparks and Mates on this site who can confirm this .

Cheers Derek


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Derek Roger said:


> Thomas and Brocklebanks ship MV Mahout was a weather ship .
> I served on her twice .
> She had the record at the time 1966 /1967 of having recorded the all time low barometer reading ( during a cyclone off India if my memory serves me well ? )
> 
> ...


I think Worldspan was referring to the Ocean Weather ships stationed in the north Atlantic - mostly ex Flower Class corvettes and based in Greenock.

A lot of Merchant Ships, certainly British ones, sent in weather reports several times a day. I always found it very rewarding to contribute to the award of golden barographs to ships' Masters - especially the ones who didn't know the weather reports were going in, it was such a nice surprise for them.

John T


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## Tony Selman (Mar 8, 2006)

Derek, this is two slightly different things. The Mahout, and many others, were weather reporting ships and were usually called OBS ships for the prefix used to indicate the type of message. Weather reports were compiled by the Mates and were transmitted every six hours.
The weather ships referred to by Worldspan were actually positioned at various locations over the North Atlantic, and possibly other areas that I am not aware of. They were there to gather weather data for government Met organisations but they also took your OBS messages from you and it was quite handy to use them at certain times.
In the North Atlantic the ships were operated by Britain, Canada, USA, Netherlands, France and Norway. Interestingly there is an article on weather ships in this quarter's issue of QSO, which is the journal of the Radio Officers' Association, and it was written by Roger Bentley a stalwart of SN. The ships were quite often time served warships and in the case of Britain were usually corvettes. Roger states that the ships spent 30-36 days at sea. I can only dread to imagine how uncomfortable it must have been on a small corvette in the middle of the North Atlantic in winter.


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## Derek Roger (Feb 19, 2005)

Tony Selman said:


> Derek, this is two slightly different things. The Mahout, and many others, were weather reporting ships and were usually called OBS ships for the prefix used to indicate the type of message. Weather reports were compiled by the Mates and were transmitted every six hours.
> The weather ships referred to by Worldspan were actually positioned at various locations over the North Atlantic, and possibly other areas that I am not aware of. They were there to gather weather data for government Met organisations but they also took your OBS messages from you and it was quite handy to use them at certain times.
> In the North Atlantic the ships were operated by Britain, Canada, USA, Netherlands, France and Norway. Interestingly there is an article on weather ships in this quarter's issue of QSO, which is the journal of the Radio Officers' Association, and it was written by Roger Bentley a stalwart of SN. The ships were quite often time served warships and in the case of Britain were usually corvettes. Roger states that the ships spent 30-36 days at sea. I can only dread to imagine how uncomfortable it must have been on a small corvette in the middle of the North Atlantic in winter.


Thanks for that Tony ; Also an extra curry for Roger Bentley plus a nan .
Derek


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Derek Roger said:


> Thomas and Brocklebanks ship MV Mahout was a weather ship .


She may have been a Voluntary Observing Merchant Ship but she was never a weather ship, which were generally former naval vessels that kept station at designated positions in mid-ocean and recorded/reported weather there 24/7 to meteorological centres ashore, as well as providing services to overflying aircraft. As well as the ones in the N Atlantic operated by the USA, Canada and the UK there were others operated by the USA in the North Pacific Ocean.

Have a look at the link in post#5 for information on the UK's North Atlantic weather ships.


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

Posted by Tony Selman


> _Weather reports were compiled by the Mates and were transmitted every six hours._


That would depend upon the ship and personnel involved: On one UK-flag ship I did it as no-one else was interested. Of course I omitted any synoptic time which fell between midnight and around 0800 l/t! 
Getting back on topic: did anyone else ever try getting a D/F bearing from a weather-ship beacon and then tried to figure out exactly where it actually was from the grid-squared plan in ALRS III?


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

Worldspan, My neighbour is a ninety three year old ex. Ocean Weather Ship meteorologist: I have printed out and passed onto him this post and will come back to you when/if he responds. Regards, Hugh


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## Worldspan (Jan 2, 2012)

Thanks, Hugh. 
I presume that the radio staff were directly recruited by the Met Office.
W


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## Robert Bush (May 18, 2006)

I was sent to the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Vancouver in 1966 as 3rd Mate. She and her sister the Quadra were weather ships in the north Pacific, brand new at that time and very sophisticated. I did not sail on her as I was transferred to a buoy tender, but I did some trial trips. The work must have been boring for the Mates steaming out for a week or so, sailing round in short squares for a week or so then returning.

These ships were much more luxurious than the UK's corvettes. I remember Mates who failed part of their exams in Glasgow and where given sea time joined them as they were in and out in a month instead of being away for much longer.

The stations were given code names. One I remember was Ocean station Popa.


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## holland25 (Nov 21, 2007)

Worldspan said:


> Thanks, Hugh.
> I presume that the radio staff were directly recruited by the Met Office.
> W


When I was with them in 1968 we were indeed recruited by the Met Office which at the time came under the Ministry Of Defence (air). I was the only one with a PMG Certificate for a time. The original Flower class corvettes had been replaced with Castle Class frigates, and were at sea for about 28 days on average. The Radio Staff consisted of 6 operators and a Comms Officer, and two Radio Techs and a Chief Tech.


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## Worldspan (Jan 2, 2012)

*Weather ships ...*

OK ... thanks for the interesting replies.
Did the weather ships keep a 24-hour watch just like passenger ships?
In that case, I suppose there would have been a requirement for more PMG cert R/Os than just you to do the normal RO duties ... 500 kc/s and so on. 
Or did everyone do a bit of everything? I mean, manning 500 kc/s and also handling the point-to-point traffic back to Bracknell. In my early days as an SWL, I recall that the traffic went to Dunstable. But I can't remember either callsign now.
And as for the ship's callsign, did you use the same one for both 500 kc/s and for the point-to-point stuff? I seem to remember that the ships had callsigns beginning with 4 ... (?) ... but that they were generally known by the final letter.
Look forward to hearing more ...
All the best.
W


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## Manchester (Feb 24, 2011)

I seem to remember that the ships had callsigns beginning with 4 ... (?) ... but that they were generally known by the final letter.

The odd time I couldn't contact GLD for my OBS I would use ocean weather ship 4YE. That was his official callsign along with 4YA etc. Think their was 5 of them stationed in a line across the N. Atlantic (More or less north to south)


The one I wouldn't want to have been on was the Ambrose lt/v off New York. Fog coming off the Grand Banks and he has his D/F beacon on. How many ships were homing in on that ??? How many near misses? Andrea Doria/Stockholm rings some distant bells!!


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## holland25 (Nov 21, 2007)

During my time there, mid to the end of 1968,a 24 hour watch was kept at all times.On passage to and from the station area, one operator kept a usual 500 k/cs watch, and the ships call sign was used e.g. MEDE. Once on station two operators were on watch and the station call sign was used e.g. 4YI.The duties were split in two,one operator manned the CW bay,this comprised a 500 k/cs watch and a watch on Bracknell, GBR, for weather and administrative traffic. The operators were at Bracknell but I dont know about the transmitters. The other operator manned the air bay. This entailed maintaining the beacon and communicating with transatlantic air traffic. At that time a lot of airlines used to report at the weather ships and would receive radar bearings,QNH and weather. They would also report weather conditions they were experiencing i.e. turbulence,jet streams etc. From time to time messages were relayed from the Oceanic control at Shanwick, when the HF was playing up. A subsidiary role of the weather ships was to act as search and rescue. In the days of the prop airliners this had been quite important, but had started to diminish by 1968 and the growth of the jet airliner.I do recall one emergency when a 707 had lost one of his engines and we relayed his messages.In addition we used to relay for small aircraft being delivered to Europe. The question of PMG tickets was not an issue, it was a government ship and governments can arrange things as they wish. My colleagues were all experienced operators, mostly ex service with one an ex airline operator. I only did it for 6 months and during that time found the work quite interesting after previous stints in Blue Funnel and Marconi.As mentioned above one of the attractions was that you got home regularly,it certainly wasn't the pay. The practice of relaying OBS messages, from merchant ships, had stopped by the time I joined. I believe the Post Office had complained about the loss of traffic.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

OBS traffic wasn't charged onboard. Did the Post Office get money fromthe Met Office?

John T


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## holland25 (Nov 21, 2007)

trotterdotpom said:


> OBS traffic wasn't charged onboard. Did the Post Office get money fromthe Met Office?
> 
> John T


I dont know.


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## jimg0nxx (Sep 1, 2005)

There may have been some charges due to the coast stations. I recall the Chief R/O on my first ship (Lismoria of Donaldsons) telling me of letters of complaint from the Irish authorities for using GPK for OBS messages whilst sailing in what they considered EJM area.

Jim


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## Worldspan (Jan 2, 2012)

Thanks, holland25, for your detailed reply ... I'd often wondered about the communications aboard weather ships.

W


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## gdynia (Nov 3, 2005)

Some of the latter weather ships were converted deep sea trawlers owned by Marrs of Hull


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

If these scans-as supplied by my 93 year old retired meteorologist are difficult to read let me know and I will print them out.
This was my neighbour's pre. British H. Bomb test training. I'll have to ask him for dates!

Missing from the bottom of the first page:- they leave the office and proceed to the balloon shelter where the sonde is attached to the balloon and launched into the air.


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## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

At coast stations, OBS were taken on the same form as paid messages, filed separately and - I think - were stamped MOD Acct - or something like. So yes, a 'charge' was raised for the service. They were bundled with Nav Bcasts, Wx and Gale wngs etc. 

David
+


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

I spent many years -on and off - in GKA accounts and as David says all traffic of that type was accounted for - words messages etc - and bundled and forwarded to the accounts department in London. They raised charges for all that type of traffic including WX broadcasts. 
In the later stages we had various weather ships but the names fail me at present. One was Norwegian/German and possibly other/s but they used to QSO via RTT direct to Bracknell. We did call these vessels at specific times and link to Bracknell. However not a circuit I spent much time on. Larry may come up with more info.


Hawkey01


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## Graham P Powell (Jun 2, 2007)

One weather ship I do remember was the ***ulus which reputedly the Dutch
sold to the UK for £1. Like Hawkeye says, we had to poll them at fixed times to get their traffic. I think GKA worked weather ships with private message but not their weather observations.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Vital Sparks (Sep 19, 2007)

OBS messages were very welcome on those occasions when you had just missed a traffic list from GKA and wanted to avoid the 2 hour wait until the next one. You could of course just call them up and ask QRU?
(have you anything for me?) what would they have done in response I wonder. Instead just call them up, send the nice OBS, and then they'll send you anything they've got. If going off watch on an odd hour I used to keep an OBS back just for this purpose.


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

The usual response the a QRU? request would be to give the vessel a QRY, as I would assume he had listened to the list and was up to collect traffic. In the later years it was so much easier as you could just interrogate the computer from your screen and not have to go through to the circulation point. This used to control all the station QRY's and gave ships out to working points so it was a pain. 
OBS always had priority.

Another weather ship that has come to mind was Polar Front which was Norwegian and I believe the last one to be withdrawn.

Hawkey01


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