Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, was a hydrographer and officer in Britain's Royal Navy. Beaufort was the creator of the Beaufort scale for indicating wind force. Sir Francis Beaufort's father, Daniel Augustus Beaufort, was a Protestant clergyman in Navan, County Meath, Ireland, and a member of the learned Royal Irish Academy. Since Francis was to become eminent in nautical maps, it is noteworthy that Francis's father created and published a new map of Ireland in 1792. Francis grew up in Wales and Ireland until age fourteen. He then left school and went to sea, but later in life had become sufficiently self-educated to associate with some of the greatest scientists and applied mathematicians of his time, including Herschel, Airy, and Babbage. Francis Beaufort had a lifelong keen awareness of the value of accurate charts for those risking the seas, having been shipwrecked himself at age fifteen due to a faulty chart, and his life's biggest accomplishments were in nautical charting.... More • http://en.wikipedia. ... s_Beaufort View • Books • Images • Videos • Search Related • Founders • Inventions • Sailors • Scientists • Cartography • Gemini • Great Britain • Hydrographer • Hydrography • Industrial Revolution • Ireland • May 27 • Science • 18th Century • People