October 2007

WEATHER STATIONS IN ACTION:

Vantage Pro2 Watches 21st Century Weather for 19th Century Ship

The 301-foot, steel-hulled, square rigged, 19th century sailing ship Balclutha currently enjoys the mostly balmy weather of the San Francisco Bay. She now has a Vantage Pro2 that gives her crew and many visitors all the weather data they need.

In 1887, the sailing ship Balclutha made her maiden voyage from Scotland to San Francisco. After a long and active career as a cargo ship (carrying grain, wool, pottery, even whisky), a salmon packet (transporting cannery supplies and canned salmon), and a movie star (she starred in “Mutiny on the Bounty” with Clark Gable), the lovely Balclutha came back to retire in San Francisco.

She is now part of the San Francisco Maritime Museum and is used to teach school kids and visitors about life at sea in the 19th century. The Maritime Museum has added a Vantage Pro2 to their park to keep park staff apprised of the weather.

(If you have very good eyes you’ll see from the photo above that someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make the station an unpleasant perch for seagulls and other birds. Caretakers of antique ships, we’ve learned, do not like seagulls.)

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