Fitzroy's Barometer... in Mousehole and Beyond.

As I was wandering around Mousehole, I noticed the barometer inset in the granite wall of the Ship Inn pub by the harbour. This was one of many such devices that were distributed in the mid-19th century to seafaring communities and inhabitants of coastal areas that were vulnerable to the ravages of extreme meterological conditions. Measuring asmospheric pressure, the barometers could indicate when danger was looming and thus prevent the needless loss of life. This 1854 barometer was loaned out by the founder of the Meteorological Office, the Admiral Robert Fitzroy (1805-1865).

That this great man should have fallen into relative obscurity is incredible, since his direct contribution to the science of weather forecasting and his hydrographic surveys of the coast of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego alone are surely proof enough of a rich life. Even less known, it would seem, is his indirect contribution to science and our understanding of evolution as without him, Charles Darwin may never have formed his ground-breaking theories on natural selection and the origin of species. Indeed, the young Darwin was able to encounter the specimens and phenomena of the natural world that were crucial to his ideas thanks to the voyage to South America on board the HMS Beagle, under the command of Fitzroy.

Theirs was a serendipitous encounter; Fitzroy was subject to bouts of depression that were supposedly due to a bi-polar condition and thus feared undertaking a long, lonely and ardous expedition without a suitable gentleman companion of learning to help him face periods of mental turmoil whilst Darwin, meanwhile, wished to escape England and more significantly still, a future otherwise destined to the priesthood! Contrary to what we might imagine, Darwin's voyage was not the result of some scientific calling although his subsequent observations as a naturalist over the five years on board (1831-36), profoundly changed his life and vision of the world.

The relationship between the two men was complex, not least because they held increasingly divergent positions regarding the creation of the world and therefore the word of the Bible and opposing political views. Despite being open to the radical new theories exposed in the writings of the geologist Charles Lyell, Fitzroy was unable to epouse the full implications of these theories, given his Christian leanings. Unlike Darwin, who appears to have had a rather hard streak, Fitzroy seems to have been more humane in his attitude to and treatment of fellow men, whatever their origin, as seen by his determination to return the Fuegians to their home land.

Following a second mariage in 1854 to a devout Christian, Fitzroy grew ever more pious and so it is hardly surprising that his increasingly strained relationship with Darwin finally reached a vitriolic end with the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859, with Fitzroy comparing Darwin's theory of evolution to a "beast rising up out of the sea...". In his remaining years, Fitzroy appears to have been tormented by mental anguish, plagued by debt and unfairly treated for his weather forecast theories. In 1865, he finally put an end to his life by slitting his throat, committing suicide just as his uncle had done decades earlier. Darwin went on to remark: 'I never knew in my life so mixed a character. Always much to love & I once loved him sincerely; but so bad a temper & so given to take offence, that I gradually quite lost my love & wished only to keep out of contact with him'.

On the same wall of The Ship Inn, next to Fitzroy's barometer is a plaque in honour of the tragic loss of the crew of the Solomon Browne in the Penlee Lifeboat disaster of 1981 and those of the striken vessel Union Star - 16 people perished in total.

I remember this awful time, looking out across Mount's Bay in the days before Christmas and thought how meaningful were the words of the hymn we sang at school "O hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea"....