He was the captain of the Beagle, the ship that brought Charles Darwin to the Galapagos. The story of this radio program starts (well before the BBC itself) in the 1850s with a man named Admiral Robert FitzRoy. Even now, as an adult, he sets his alarm so he can tune into the early morning forecast. People regard it as poetry.” Connolly grew up listening to the forecast. The Shipping Forecast is “part of the culture here,” muses Charlie Connolly, author of Attention All Shipping: A Journey ‘Round the Shipping Forecast. “It’s a much loved institution. “Viking, North Utsire southwesterly five to seven occasionally gale eight rain or showers moderate or good, occasionally poor.” Cryptic and mesmerizing, this is the UK’s nautical weather report. “And now the Shipping Forecast issued by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency,” says the voice over the wire. Armchair travel will never be the same again.Four times every day, on radios all across the United Kingdom, a BBC announcer begins reading from a seemingly indecipherable script. In ATTENTION ALL SHIPPING Charlie Connelly wittily explores the places behind the voice, those mysterious regions whose names seem often to bear no relation to conventional geography. Yet familiar though the sea areas are by name, few people give much thought to where they are or what they contain. There's no danger of a westerly gale eight, veering southwesterly increasing nine later (visibility poor) gusting through your average suburban living room, blowing the Sunday papers all over the place and startling the cat.
Sitting at home listening to the shipping forecast can be a cosily reassuring experience. Since its first broadcast in the 1920s it has inspired poems, songs and novels in addition to its intended objective of warning generations of seafarers of impending storms and gales.
This solemn, rhythmic intonation of the shipping forecast on BBC radio is as familiar as the sound of Big Ben chiming the hour. Irish Sea' - the hilarious bestselling travel book that journeys round areas made famous by Radio 4's The Shipping Forecast.
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