And now 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

And now the shipping forecast issued by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coast

Agency at 10015 on Monday the 21st of September. at

O. I. 1.5 on Monday, the 21st of September. Four times every day on radios all across the British Isles,

a BBC announcer begins reading from a seemingly indecipitable script.

Viking North at Sierra, Southwesterly 5 to 7, occasionally Gale 8, rain or showers, moderate or good, occasionally poor.

This cryptic mesmerizing mumbojumbo is the shipping forecast,

the UK's nautical weather report.

Tyne Dogger Fisher.. Southwest, four or five, increasing five or six,

occasionally seven later, occasional rain, moderate or good.

And that voice you hear reading it is Peter Jefferson.

Yes, hello, I'm Peter Jefferson.

I used to work for the BBC for about a lifetime and a half and one of the things I did there was to read the shipping

forecast. Peter started working for the BBC back in the 60s. He was an

announcer which meant he read the news. But one day they handed him a very

different sort of script.

It was the shipping forecast.

Although I'd heard it since I was a small boy, I never thought that one day I'd be reading it.

And when I was faced with it, and nobody told me how I should go about reading it, I was faced with it and nobody tell me how I should go about reading it.

I was somewhat nervous.

So he just read the script, word for word.

Originally I was reading what's there and wondering to myself, what the hell is all this about.

...