Weather Adviser

HMS Amberley Castle

Built by S.P. Austin & Son Ltd, Sunderland

Launched 27 Nov 1943, Commissioned 24 Nov 1944

Taken over by the Air ministry in Nov 1959 and then converted to Weather Adviser in 1960 at Blyth, Northumberland. She was commissioned and renamed Weather Adviser by Lady Sutton, wife of the then Director General of the Meteorological Office on 22nd Sep 1960 at Greenock

"WEATHER ADVISER" By C. E. N. FRANKCOM, O.B.E. On 22 September, at the James Watt Dock in Greenock, the "Castle" class frigate Amberley Castle, having been converted to an ocean weather ship, was renamed Weather Adviser by Lady Sutton, wife of the Director-General of the Meteorological Office. The extensive work of converting her for her new duties had been carried out by the Blyth Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. (Northumberland); a job which took about nine months to complete. Lady Sutton was accompanied by her husband; the guests attending the ceremony included the Provost of Greenock, representatives of the shipyard, local authorities, and wives of various members of the ship's company. Appropriately enough, it was a fine sunny day, so that the River Clyde looked at its best; Weather Adviser, with her newly painted yellow upper works and blue hull 24 and "dressed" with the flags of all those countries which operate weather ships in the North Atlantic, looked quite colourful. Her sister ship Weather Reporter and the veteran Weather Observer, the latter now withdrawn from active service and looking rather forlorn, were berthed astern of her. Weather Adviser ship's company were drawn up on the quay alongside the ship. Before the actual renaming, Sir Graham Sutton gave an informal talk to the ship's company and guests in which he paid tribute to the good job that the ocean weather ships have done during their thirteen years of international duty in the North Atlantic. He emphasized the value of the surface and upper air observations made aboard these ships, not only for aviation but for general meteorological purposes and said how much he appreciated the way in which all concerned had continued to carry out this important work under the arduous conditions of North Atlantic weather. After inspecting the ship's company, Sir Graham and Lady Sutton accompanied by the Captain went aboard the ship where Lady Sutton cut a tape to release a canvas cover disclosing the ship's name, saying "I rename this ship Weather Adviser, may God bless her and all who sail aboard her". The visitors were then invited aboard the ship to inspect her and to take tea. The lay-out of Weather Adviser is very similar to that of Weather Reporter, but certain improvements have been introduced as a result of experience gained with Reporter. The arrangement of the accommodation has been improved by narrowing the alleyways and thereby giving somewhat larger cabins, and the meteorological office, radio receiving room, radar office and chart room have all been increased appreciably in size. The lay-out of the meteorological office is somewhat better than that aboard Reporter, and provision is made for the installation of "Cintel" equipment for automatic radio-sonde reception when that becomes available. The radio equipment of Adviser is of a commercial design and considerably more modern than that which was available for installing aboard Reporter. The naval type stabilized ten-centimetre radar equipment for radar-wind finding and for providing navigational "fixes" to aircraft in flight is similar to that carried in the other British weather ships, but is of more modern design. In order to achieve better results when the wind-finding balloon is abaft the ship during a radar-wind ascent, the fore-top mast has been removed. As in Weather Reporter, the lining and deck heads of all accommodation and offices are covered with plastic leather cloth bonded to asbestos panels, and the decks are covered with resin-bound tiles. All Officers and Petty Officers are berthed in single cabins; the ratings are berthed three in a cabin. Generally the accommodation is as good as one would find in any modern ship of a similar size, and the appearance of the furniture is particularly attractive. In command of Weather Adviser is Commander H. Sobey, R.N.R., who joined Weather Watcher as Chief Officer in 1947 and was promoted to Command of Weather Observer in 1952. Unfortunately he fell sick shortly before the ceremony and Captain J. Clark, who would normally have been Chief Officer, assumed temporary command of the ship. Two other members of her ship's company have served in the weather ships since 1947; Mr. Lambert, the radio overseer and Mr. Gilbey, the boatswain, while two others have served in the ships since 1948. Mr. Dunphy, one of the meteorological officers, has the distinction of being the longest serving meteorologist in British ocean weather ships; he joined them in 1949 and has done 75 voyages. It was a coincidence that on the day of the renaming ceremony Mr. Dunphy received the news that he had been 25 awarded the L. G. Groves Second Memorial Award. Mr. Jones, the meteorological officer-in-charge aboard the ship has been in the weather ships since 1953- Weather Adviser replaces Weather Observer, which was the first British weather ship to take up duty at a North Atlantic station in August 1947. Weather Observer did a consistently good job during her 103 voyages as a weather ship and fully maintained the reputation of the "Flower" class corvettes for sea-keeping qualities. Two other "Castle" class frigates are being converted to ocean weather ships at Blyth, and are expected to be in service during 1961, in replacement of Weather Recorder and Weather Watcher.

Weather adviser (mdbe)

At station India 1967

Weather Adviser was converted at Manchester Dry Docks Co to Admiral Fitzroy in 1976

The refurbishment consisted of improvement to accommodation, provision of a new fully equipped modern bridge structure, the fitting of a completely new galley, conversion of the ships electrical power supply from dc to ac, automation of the boiler controls, installation of new upper wind finding equipment and the complete re-equipping of the communications installation.

On 14th March 1977 Adviser was recommisioned and named Admiral Fitzroy by Mrs J. Walsh, wife of the Provost of Greenock

She sailed from Greenock on her first duty to station Lima on 20 March 1977

Admiral Fitzroy

Withdrawn from service in 1981 and scrapped in 1982