Francis Beaufort scale, decoded as 32–38 mph, or a "moderate Gale". Beaufort, like other patrons of exploration, has had his name given to many geographical places. Among these: Beaufort created the Beaufort cipher. It is a substitution cipher similar to the Vigenère cipher. Francis Beaufort Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, KCB, FRS, FRGS, FRAS, MRIA (; 27 May 1774 – 17 December 1857) was an Irish hydrographer and officer in the Royal Navy. Beaufort was the creator of the Beaufort Scale for indicating wind force. Francis Beaufort was descended from French Protestant Huguenots, who fled the French Wars of Religion in the
Beaufort scale law relating wind velocity to Beaufort force. Wave heights in the scale are for conditions in the open ocean, not along the shore. The wind speeds in different units are not mathematically equivalent; e.g. 12–19 km/h is not equivalent to 8–12 mph, and both are not equivalent to 7–10 knots. The reason is that the Beaufort scale is not an exact nor an objective scale. It was based on visual and subjective observation of a ship and of the sea. The corresponding integral wind speeds were determined later, but the values in different units were never made equivalent. The scale