Old Weather Forum

Randi wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 2:40 pm

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/o/origin-navy-terminology.html wrote:LOG BOOK
Today any bound record kept on a daily basis aboard ship is called a "log." Originally, records were kept on the sailing ships by inscribing information onto shingles cut from logs and hinged so they opened like books. When paper became more readily available, "log books" were manufactured from paper and bound. Shingles were relegated to naval museums -- but the slang term stuck.

Seems fishy to me. https://www.etymonline.com/word/log#etymonline_v_43590 is all I've ever heard.

I have to admit that it seemed a bit unlikely to me too

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Jamestown wrote at least part of the log on a slate and then copied it to paper at the end of the day - at least most days

Bob wrote:Mon Jul 18, 2016 2:41 pm January 17, 1862
Hampton Roads

This day's remarks + columns
was accidentally erased from the
log slate before being copied.


They're keeping the rough log on a chalkboard?

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 67_116.jpg

Bob wrote:Wed Aug 03, 2016 10:45 pm October 22, 1862

Another accidental erasure of the log slate before copying it...

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 67_063.jpg

krwood wrote: ↑Wed Sep 29, 2021 11:12 pm Seems fishy to me. https://www.etymonline.com/word/log#etymonline_v_43590 is all I've ever heard.

That's all I've ever heard too. Shingles hinged to open like books sounds very strange.
But then again, what was that old saying about truth and fiction, and their relative strangeness to each other?

I agree with both of you. If it hadn't been posted in Naval History and Heritage Command I would not have posted it at all.


Digging further...

The Sailor's Word-Book, by Admiral W. H. Smyth, 1867 says:
LOG-BOARD. Two boards shutting together like a book, and divided into several columns, in which to record, through the hours of the day and night, the direction of the wind and the course of the ship, with all the material occurrences, together with the latitude by observation. From this table the officers work the ship's way, and compile their journals. The whole being written by the mate of the watch with chalk, is rubbed out every day at noon. Now a slate is more generally used.
LOG-BOOK. Mostly called the log, is a journal into which the log-board is daily transcribed, together with any other circumstance deserving notice. The intermediate divisions or watches are usually signed by the commanding officer. It is also divided into harbour-log and sea-log.

Given the comments in Jamestown's log book (above) about the slate being erased before being copied, we know that this was originally the process.

Perhaps the Naval History and Heritage Command comment is more of a misinterpretation than a total fabrication.

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Randi wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 9:09 pm December 27 — Valparaiso

6 to 8 pm.
Received the following stores; Engineers Dept, ..., 2 Log slates, 1 Doz Bottles Ink, 2 Doz Pencils, 100 Slate pencils;

I think the latter, using chalk on wood, is the correct interpretation. Bravo!

I'm up for that possibility Randi. We know that the logs books were the tidied up version of the data and events of the day. Love the idea of the slate - a few raindrops and that would be a blank slate

I wonder how this day would have been entered.
Picture from Australia yesterday in the same story about a tornado at Bathurst. (Not taken by me)



running away

oputl

Michael wrote: ↑Thu Sep 30, 2021 10:09 pmoputl

I think
Overcast, passing, ugly, thunder, lightning covers the weather well. You cannot see it but the story included hail.
Now what about the cloud formations?

ST CUN AC CS

Michael wrote: ↑Thu Sep 30, 2021 11:03 pmST CUN AC CS

I really miss a good old thunderstorm. I have had a new 50 year roof for more than 10 months with 4 inches of rain. A big dark cloud went over this afternoon; it was smoke from a fire. That picture is amazing. Stuart, have have posted some really good ones. Is your weather that violent, or are these from the whole continent?
Stay safe- from everything.

Those picture are an exception.
We do swing between floods, drought and bushfires quite often. Remember Australia is just a bit smaller than the USA and bigger then Europe so you have to expect a big variety of weather. In general the western 2/3 are dry and the east gets the rain. The south west part of WA and the southern coast of SA and Vic gets the rain with poor Tasmania has about 150 rainy days/yr.
Like you Morgan, I do like watching a good electrical storm but we do not get many in my area.

On log books, most of our circa WW1 logs were the copies sent to the Admiralty rather than the logs written up daily. The latter had different writing on each watch, if a lot was happening then entries could be squeezed in to any empty spaces on the page and the sequence of events had to be disentangled. So even then I seem to remember that certain things were written on a slate in the wheelhouse and might be copied in to one of the logs at the end of the watch although other things might be written up directly. This could be seen by more than one hand in the same watch entry. The signatures in those entries were also obviously signatures and not copies prefixed by 'signed'.

I was curious about winds at some of our more frequented ports. One common way to show winds is to plot a wind rose. From my time working with the Yukon Forest Service, I wrote a short script to plot a very basic wind rose. I thought it would be fun to look at some of the stations in Alaska. The bars show how often the wind blows from a give direction, and it also shows the mean wind speed for each direction. There are much more sophisticated plots, but these suffice for me. Look at the difference between Barrow and Juneau. Juneau and Ketchinan show the strong valley influence. Barrow is the windiest.

Barrow
Juneau Ketchikan Kodiak Nome Unalaksa

Those are fascinating Michael!

I can tell you that the predominant wind around Barrow is North East. So many of the whalers enter their overwinter wind as 'NE, NE, NE, NNE, N, etc' so when a 'W' or 'S' turns up I have to stop and think hard. They are further around the coast but even so...

It is rather neat, looking at all these things. I have to admit, the numbers occasionally pull me down into a rabbit hole.

Randi wrote: ↑Thu Sep 30, 2021 5:15 pm I agree with both of you. If it hadn't been posted in Naval History and Heritage Command I would not have posted it at all.


Digging further...

The Sailor's Word-Book, by Admiral W. H. Smyth, 1867 says:
LOG-BOARD. Two boards shutting together like a book, and divided into several columns, in which to record, through the hours of the day and night, the direction of the wind and the course of the ship, with all the material occurrences, together with the latitude by observation. From this table the officers work the ship's way, and compile their journals. The whole being written by the mate of the watch with chalk, is rubbed out every day at noon. Now a slate is more generally used.
LOG-BOOK. Mostly called the log, is a journal into which the log-board is daily transcribed, together with any other circumstance deserving notice. The intermediate divisions or watches are usually signed by the commanding officer. It is also divided into harbour-log and sea-log.

Given the comments in Jamestown's log book (above) about the slate being erased before being copied, we know that this was originally the process.

Perhaps the Naval History and Heritage Command comment is more of a misinterpretation than a total fabrication.

Great sleuthing here!

Michael wrote: ↑Sat Oct 02, 2021 10:18 pm It is rather neat, looking at all these things. I have to admit, the numbers occasionally pull me down into a rabbit hole.

I took a look into one of Michael's rabbit holes and I'm still exploring it months later -- it's very interesting.

The predominance of rabbit holes in such an aquatic subject is quite an intrigue