ABSTRACT
This chapter engages with debates about the ship as a site of scientific labour through an examination of the study of meteorology at sea in the period between the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, and the Conference on Maritime Meteorology, in London in 1874. Particular attention is paid to attempts to establish international standards for the study of meteorology at sea. The chapter begins by summarising the changes that affected meteorological science and the British Navy in the early nineteenth century. The final section examines the aims and outcomes of two international conferences on maritime meteorology, in Brussels in 1853 and London in 1874. Participants' responses revealed differences of opinion on the aims and successes of the 1853 conference and over subsequent attempts to introduce a uniform international approach to the study of meteorology at sea. This chapter has shown that during the nineteenth century Britain's Admiralty gradually adopted and honed the practice of observing and recording the weather.
