Welcome to my website about Ocean Weather Ships, These were converted Castle Class Corvettes (Frigates) - Reporter, Monitor, Adviser, Surveyor, and Converted Flower Class Corvettes Watcher, Explorer, Recorder, Observer. These ships spent their working life in the Atlantic Ocean collecting weather data which was then sent to the Met Office at Bracknell to produce weather forecasts.The introduction of satellites to gather data meant the ships were not needed, The ex Flower Class ships were replaced with the ex Castle Clas ships around 1960, 2 of these were scrapped and 2 refitted, they continued in a reduced role until being scrapped in the early 1980's
The site is dedicated to my father Fredric Brooker who worked on the ships as a Radio Technician and passed away in Dec 2009
The site has been built with kind donations, some items I have gathered myself and others from my father's collection
The aim is to record as much history about the ships and men that worked on them as possible, and to display to all this almost forgotten piece of history.
I initially designed the site to centre around the 4 ex Castle Class ships but as I have come to learn more about the whole weather ship concept I have added info about all the ships from the initial Flower Class ships right up to the the days of the Starella and also some of the foreign weather ships as this gives a fuller picture of the whole Ocean Weather Service.
The Role of the Weather Ships
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HMS Pevensey Castle - Weather Monitor - Admiral
Beaufort
HMS Amberley Castle - Weather Adviser - Admiral
Fitzroy
HMS Oakham Castle - Weather Reporter
HMS Rushen Castle - Weather Surveyor
HMS Marguerite - Weather Observer
HMS Snowflake - Weather Watcher
HMS Genista - Weather Recorder
Ships Crew
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Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Other Flower Class Weather Ships
Castle Class Corvette Memorial
Click the pic for the OWS Weather Surveyor group on Facebook
What's New
16/05/12
Updates to Crew 5, External, Crew List, Flower, Misc, Surveyor, Role 2, Stories,
Fitzroy, Reporter, Docs 2,
Memorabilia 2, Internal
Added Shipmates Departed Page, Crew 6 Page, Watcher, Recorder, Explorer & Observer pages
21/03/2012 Updates to Crew 5, Crew List, Flower, Models, Memorabilia 2, Stories, Docs 2, Audio/Video, Other Weather ships, Surveyor, Role 2, Admiral Beaufort, External, Misc
27/09/11 Updates to Cruise Data, Docs2, Crew List, Audio/Video, Fitzroy, Flower, Added Crew Page 5
06/08/11 Updates to Crew List, Other Weatherships, Crew 4, Flower, Memorial, Memorabilia 2,
21/05/11 Updates to Crew List, Adviser, Monitor, Stories, Other, Crew 4, Role2, Cruise Data, Added Memorabilia page 2,Added Docs page 2, Added Timeline Page
06/03/11 Updates to Crew List, Stories, Role 2, Technical, Reporter, Internal, External, Memorabilia, Misc, Model, Added Other, Crew4
27/01/11 Updates to Crew List, Crew 3, Other, Role, Memorabilia, Memorial, Added Role 2, Stories, Model
03/12/10 Updates to Crew List, Surveyor, Memorabilia, Monitor, Role, Crew2, Flower, External, Misc, Video, Technical, Added Crew 3 page and Memorial Page
10/11/10 Updates to Crew List, Other, External, Surveyor, Adviser, Monitor, Role, Crew 2,Flower,Memorabiia,Added Cruise Data Page
23/10/10 Updates to Crew List, Flower, Reporter, Adviser, Monitor, Surveyor, Docs, External, Other
19/09/10 Updates to Crew List, Crew 2, Other, Role, Reporter, Monitor, Surveyor, Flower, Memorabilia, Docs, Technical
24/08/10 Site moved to new server, Crew 2 and Crew List pages added, some minor updates on other pages
16/08/10 Updates to Crew, Role, External, Internal, Other, Adviser, Surveyor, Reporter
09/08/10 Added a few more names to Ships Crew photos
08/08/10 Updates to Adviser, Monitor, Reporter, Articles, Internal, Ships Crew, Links.
08/08/10 Added new pages for Flower Class Ships & Technical
18/06/10 Added a new video and an audio file to Audio/Video page
03/06/10 Added a photo to Ships Crew page
30/03/10 New pages for Internal/External photos, Updates to Crew, Adviser, Surveyor, Reporter, Role, Articles & Misc pages
13/03/10 Initial publication of site
If you have any other material/suggestion/comments about the site please email me (Paul)
Also if you would like to be informed when the site is updated then contact me to be added to a mailing list.
Links
The following websites have been either a source of material or have a connection with the Weather ships
http://theflowerclasscorvetteforums.yuku.com/
http://blog.rushencastle.co.uk/
http://www.castlecorvette.co.uk/
http://www.cloudobservers.co.uk
http://www.offiler.demon.co.uk
http://home.wanadoo.nl/janfernhout/weerschip_cumulus.htm
http://www.seatheships.org.uk/
Please respect copyright, where possible I have gained the owners consent to publish material on this site and request you not use this
material in the public domain without gaining your own consent first.
Crew List 
Memorabilia
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Audio/Video
Technical
Timeline