ABSTRACT
Extreme weather events galvanised a wider-scale, state-driven response with the institution of a coastal weather warning system by the British Meteorological Office under Captain Robert FitzRoy after the 'Royal Charter' storm of 1859. This chapter analyses the records of the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariner's Benevolent Society (SMS), which are held at their office in Chichester and heretofore have not been used in scholarly research. Other sources discussed include contemporary newspapers and government wreck reports. The chapter highlights the social and material space of the sea and the inhabitants who live beside it, by investigating the ways in which gales and shipwrecks were recorded, transmitted and employed by the Society. It will show how a large national charity, along with its local auxiliaries, experienced and responded to extreme weather that occurred on the coasts of the United Kingdom. The chapter focuses into the response of coastal communities to the advent of the SMS and to the unpredictability of their marine environment.
