Old Weather Forum

Being transcribed as a special case

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On the weather page, please enter: date, locations, knots, fathoms, courses steered, and all the weather data in the columns outlined in red in the spreadsheet.
If the ship is not moving (e.g., at anchor), knots, fathoms, and courses steered do not need to be transcribed. In that case, the course is usually the ship's heading.

On the events page please enter: location information, sailing information, and any mentions of ice.
In general there is no need to include comments about the weather unless there is something unusual or extreme.
Comments about problems with or changes of the weather instruments are very rare but should be noted.
Aurorae, volcanic, and seismic activity should be reported in the forum.
The names of US Navy and Coast Guard ships met should be transcribed, but if they are seen on the following days they don't have to be transcribed again. You can include all ships mentioned in a single entry without a time or any additional data. This gives the science team a chance to compare weather readings.
Other events are optional.

One person can do both weather and events (Stream 1), but the system also allows one person to do the weather page (Stream 1) and a second person to do the events page (Stream 2).

Every page needs to have a date. The date is used to organize the pages.

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See Tuscarora: general for some general background and discussion.
See Tuscarora: examples for a quick introduction to transcribing or a refresher.

See Transcribing Guide to learn how to transcribe the data.
Post in Ask Questions Here or this topic if you have questions.

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3 February 1862
Portland Roads
England

At 5:10 PM the Rebel Steamer Nashville passed down the Solent, Capt Craven of the U. S. Steam Sloop Tuscarora being notified by the British Naval Authorities, through Capt Patey of the Royal British Navy that the Tuscarora would not be allowed to leave until the expiration of 24 hours. The British Steam Frigate Shannon, of 51 guns, being near the Tuscarora, got up steam on the appearance of the Nashville and ~~~ down the river for the apparent purpose of preventing the Tuscarora proceeding in chase of the Rebel steamer.

Droped


From The Sailor's Word-Book, by Admiral W. H. Smyth, 1867:

DROP DOWN A RIVER. Synonymous with falling (which see).

FALL DOWN, To. To sail, drift, or be towed to some lower part nearer a river's mouth or opening.

Of course! The single p looked like those old-fashioned double ss that look like an f! He often has what looks like pafed such-an-such a place.

Yes, I initially tried to read it as a double s too
I don't know if the log keeper's spelling was a bit shaky or if dropped could be written with a single p at that time. Either way, that didn't help.

I don't know if the log keeper's spelling was a bit shaky

It is a bit more than a bit shaky.

Cadiz, Spain
23 June

Four men deserted from a boat and were punished as follows:

1. Turned out of the Rover;
2. Blacklisted for four months;
3. No liberty during the cruise;
4. No money for six months; and,
5. Dishonorable discharge

and, the Captain then announced to the crew:

I hereby give orders that any man who leaves this ship without permission is not to be allowed to return on board.

The remarkable thing to me was that a few weeks ago a man was court-martialed for murderous assault and mayhem. He received just two months with no pay.

I haven't been keeping a count but by then end of June at least eight crew members have deserted! One man came back, but there was no mention of anything more about him.

18 August. We sold the clothing of 14 more deserters. A week or so ago, we sold the clothing for a dozen other deserters. We're going to run out of people!

Cadiz, Spain
September 6

The Act for the Suppression of the Spirit Ration to take effect on and after the 1st of September 1862.

Hmmm. Several months ago they loaded maybe a dozen or moe barrels of whiskey. I guess it's too late to drink it all now.

I found a number of articles referring to the Spirit Ration. This quote summed up things nicely:

On August 31, 1862, the grog ration was officially discontinued, with the final ration to be issued on September 30th of that year. Much of the whiskey was handed over to surgeons for conversion into ether and laudanum or to be used straight as spiritus frumenti. Thousands more barrels were sold at auction.

The ration was 1 Gill, or 4 fluid ounces, per day.

For those interested in various things, these two log pages are worth a read. A senior commander fired by President Lincoln, with explanations from a couple of other captains etc. You can read about Rear Admiral George Henry Preeble here, and how the statements from two captains and the captain of the CSS Florida later exonerated him.

Horta, Fayal
9 December

More crew complaints. The firemen are unhappy with their rations. People are throwing things.

Anyone caught throwing things in the forum will have their pay docked.

I'll take a dock in pay. We found out the perpetrators, they get charged with mutinous conduct, guilt to be determined by a Court Martial.

The voyage for 1862 has been completed. You can see a plot of the voyage here and, for more detail, download the KML file and view it with Google Earth. No people data were transcribed.

These are the weather statistics for this voyage:

Weather Element	Records
DirT	5,852
Kts	5,797
Baro	4,855
Dry	4,891
Water	26
Weather	5,617
Total	27,038

Tuscarora travelled a total of 15,153 miles.