Old Weather Forum
Old Weather: Classic => The Dockyard => Topic started by: Randi on 12 February 2014, 06:59:50
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Many logs have a variety of additional data that we are not
currently using, and the question of how to handle them has come up
several times.
We have checked with Philip and Kevin.
The
response is: "The difficulty with data like this is that we can't
promise to use it - it's tempting, it's interesting, but we don't KNOW
that it will be used in science - there's a risk that transcribing it
will be a waste of someone's time."
HOWEVER, they have also
suggested creating a topic (this one): "... wherein a brief note about
what it is and where it can be found could be posted. Since the US logs
will be available in perpetuity on the National Archives website it
would be easy enough for someone to go back for it later. We should then
put a notice in the edited/finished document for the ship of what was
seen."
Please continue to note:
Sunspots, aurorae,
erratic compass bearings and unusual radio reception in Old Space
Weather: sightings of aurorae and sunspots
(http://forum.oldweather.org/index.php?topic=3670.0)
and
Volcanic activity in Natural Phenomena (http://forum.oldweather.org/index.php?topic=384.0)
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Jamestown (1879)
Jan 1880 - Sitka, Alaska
(not currently sure about earlier and later logs)
Temperature on Shore is entered in the State of the Sea column.
e.g., http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/final/USS%20Jamestown/vol042of040/vol042of067_072_0.jpg
Events page includes description of weather, surf, tide, and water temperature.
e.g., http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/final/USS%20Jamestown/vol042of040/vol042of067_072_1.jpg
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This is GREAT topic to add, Randi! Elsewhere in the forum it's
mentioned that serious researchers who would use this 'extra' data
would want to transcribe it from the logs themselves anyway.
How will this forum topic be linked to the ships so that
researchers know it's there?
Albatross 1884 in the Caribbean Sea:
On
the remarks pages, the log records sounding depths and types of bottom
sediments. The log also records the timing of deployment of other
scientific gear and movements on and off shore of scientific parties,
but not the resultant data. The log provides the schedule
for everything that was happening on the ship, which is interesting
itself, and also sometimes explains the timing and location of a
scientific observation, or lack thereof.
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In the Jeannette logs the water density was recorded for a while (at
the surface, 6 fathoms and 20 fathoms if I remember correctly). I
transcribed this in the Events tab but perhaps not from when they
started to appear..
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In
the Jeannette logs the water density was recorded for a while (at the
surface, 6 fathoms and 20 fathoms if I remember correctly). I
transcribed this in the Events tab but perhaps not from when they
started to appear..
And
the reason for this is also interesting, although it isn't mentioned in
the logbook IIRC, but in one of the accounts, I think Melville. And
that's the problem: I've got tons of bonus material that I could add
either as footnotes, crossreferences or a seperate document, but I don't
know how to do it, especially as I don't have the transcribed log. Not
sure what happened to it. It didn't show up again since the transcript
was finished.
I think the Jeannette expedition is by far the
best documented one so far (first hand accounts, that is!). It'd be a
shame not to use it!
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Concord has been recording depth soundings and type of bottom at
times during their voyages, currents and depth of water at anchorage
etc. The latter especially at anchorage in the Min River near Fuzhou. It
seemed to me that the depth soundings and type of bottom during transit
might have been some kind of survey because there would be lots of
soundings for a day or two when in transit around Korea or China, and
then nothing for days. Usually, when they anchor, they record the bottom
type and depth. They also record, every day when in port, how much food
and what type they are buying for the crew; things like, "114 lbs of
bread 128 1/2 lbs of fresh beef and vegetables". Not very interesting to
me, but maybe to a dietician or someone else in the health sciences.
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The Pioneer has been recording the surface temperature (in Celsius!)
while at sea. I have been transcribing this as "Event: Other".
So,
for the page
http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/final/USCS%20Pioneer/Book%2046%20-%20July-September,%201933/IMG_0326_0.jpg
I did it like this:
Surf. Temp.: 14.2 C at 35 08 N, 121 07 W
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That looks perfect, Hanibal.
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Doesn't surface temperature go in the water temerature column?
If not, I have lots of horrible entries on the Patterson.
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Actually, both methods look right to me. Because the surface
temperature comes attached to a lat/long location. But it is also
on a time line. Which means I need to ask Philip. I'll get
back to you both.
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Patterson, at least here, http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/final/USCS%20Patterson/Book%201/IMG_4949_0.jpg,
has the water temperature in the water temperature column, so that is how it should be transcribed.
When
"surface temperature" is written beside the weather data table and the
water temperature column is left blank, it is less obvious how to handle
it.
I see that Janet is taking care of it ;)
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Concord, deviation of the compass.
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The
Pioneer has been recording the surface temperature (in Celsius!) while
at sea. I have been transcribing this as "Event: Other".
So, for
the page
http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/final/USCS%20Pioneer/Book%2046%20-%20July-September,%201933/IMG_0326_0.jpg
I did it like this:
Surf. Temp.: 14.2 C at 35 08 N, 121 07 W
Doesn't surface temperature go in the water temerature column?
If not, I have lots of horrible entries on the Patterson.
Well,
I asked Philip "Pioneer is providing daily surface temps attached to a
lat/long location. Hanibal is recording the whole statement as an
event. Asterix is putting in the water temp field in the weather
readings. Which is right, or do both work? Help - my instinct says
they are both doing something that works." And got this
answer. Neither of you are to change anything. :)
Blowed
if I know - Asterix's method has the advantage that the obs will be
routinely extracted (no special case required), Hanibal's method has the
advantage that it marks the ob as possibly something other than the
bog-standard sea-temperature.
Generally if two experienced
transcribers are doing something different it's because there's neither
approach is obviously better than the other, and that's true here. They
are both doing a good job and might as well each carry on as they are
doing.
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aye aye cap'n. Will carry on
thanks!
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Mapurves, thanks for pointing out some other "data" that I have been
taking for granted that might be interesting to social scientists.
The Jamestown 1844
also has a daily list of the type and amount of foods used that day and
the remaining "on hand". In the remarks they record everything
received on the ship - water, food, supplies, lumber, etc.
And there is a daily "sick report".
Now, if only they had recorded air pressure that often!
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Just wanted to mention that the Vicksburg includes a narrative
description of the weather for each watch on the Events of the Day page.
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Just
wanted to mention that the Vicksburg includes a narrative description
of the weather for each watch on the Events of the Day page.
That
is required comment in all US military and coast guard ships and most
science vessels. It is very common, and most mention-only
transcribers skip it.
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Just
wanted to mention that the Vicksburg includes a narrative description
of the weather for each watch on the Events of the Day page.
That
is required comment in all US military and coast guard ships and most
science vessels. It is very common, and most mention-only
transcribers skip it.
Seen it on the Pioneer too. I ignore it and just do the regular WR on the weather pages.
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This weather information is mostly redundant but it sometimes helps clarify the codes.
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No idea what to do with this.
http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/final/USS%20Concord/vol027of040/vol027of040_159_0.jpg
(http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/final/USS%20Concord/vol027of040/vol027of040_159_0.jpg)
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Not too much you can do with it ::)
Posting it here is fine ;)
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Those
department reports are online for most departments, altho not the most
current ones. And very interesting and informative they can
be. But I was wondering about the actual field logbooks filled out
by the scientists in sync with the ship's logbook. Our logs tell
us they dredged this afternoon, the field logbooks would tell us
what specimens they pulled up.
Found them - the
scan date on some is December 2014 so I may have simply looked too
soon. Some Biodiversity Library did the scanning apparently, but
they are still copyright-free gov't docs.
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/search?searchTerm=albatross+field+notes#/titles index.
The 1899-1900 great circle journey is at here plus others (3 month books)
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/176710#page/1/
They
don't list the specimens here at all, but they do list deep ocean
temperatures and some of those may interest Philip. I don't think
any other ship in our fleet is taking the bottom ocean temperature in
the Mariana Trench. (Of course, all the temps are handwritten and
no one has yet transcribed them.) :)
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Actually,
the deep-ocean data people
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Ocean_Database_Project
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Ocean_Database_Project)) have been
at this data rescue business much longer
(http://www.iode.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18&Itemid=100087
(http://www.iode.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18&Itemid=100087))
than us surface/atmosphere people. However they do look at different
documents, have quite different scientific requirements, and I don't
think they have a citizen science project.
So I (and the oW
science team) don't do sub-surface data, because there are already other
people doing that (it's a whole seperate scientific field that I know
little about) - so you don't need to transcribe any such observations
you find (I don't know what to do with them, and they may already be
known), but please do mention their existence in the forum, so that when
the oceanographers start taking an interest we can tell them where to
look.
This is the place to record them ;)
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I
have been thinking and working for quite some time on the best ways to
capture and preserve all of the work that OW volunteers are
accomplishing that is not part of the instrumental weather data stream.
One of the very compelling things we can do is relate the transcriptions
back to the original documents at the US National Archives and
elsewhere, which will enable word and attribute search of the high
resolution image collection, and dual display of content. In the same
way we can work with multiple repositories to unite different sources of
information that stems directly from the ships' logbooks, but are
accessioned in different collections. For example, this field note book
(https://transcription.si.edu/project/6983) was kept by William Dall,
the Coast Survey officer in charge of the schooner Yukon in 1880 and
transcribed by the Smithsonian; the corresponding logbook was imaged at
the National Archives and transcribed by Old Weather volunteers. When
we're done then, you'll be able to see everything OW has accomplished,
along with related items like this, and know that it has become part of a
curated digital collection that will be available for research in the
future. Almost certainly research we haven't imagined.
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Fantastic - it's great to know that our work will benefit the archives so much :)
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Found an insert containing a bunch of surface ocean temperatures:
http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/final/USCS%20Patterson/Book%20129/IMG_4971_1.jpg
http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/final/USCS%20Patterson/Book%20129/IMG_4972_1.jpg
(This is all March 1905, during a trip from Hawaii to Seattle)