Seas of Knowledge Project

[Randi]

Hello Old Weather team! Our names are Charlotte (username Carlyle) and Rachael (rkirsch18) and we are two of the interns for the new Seas of Knowledge project. In the next few weeks, we'll get started imaging Navy muster rolls and logbooks from 1861-1879 and hopefully those will find their way onto the Old Weather site soon. We're looking forward to playing a part in this exciting project! You can read more about it here: https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/nr18-24

[Randi]

Welcome, Charlotte and Rachael - great to have you onboard. It sounds a great project, and very much of interest to many of us here. Look forward to working with you.

I'll second that!

I will very happily third that.
Looking forward to working with you Charlotte and Rachel. It's going to be fascinating work, plenty of food for the OW addicts, and another great opportunity for us to help save a whole planet

Joan

Welcome aboard!

Pleased to meet you, Charlotte and Rachael.

[Randi]

Hello all, I'm jumping in to introduce myself as another Seas of Knowledge intern alongside Charlotte, Rachel, and a few other students. I'm so pleased to be able to contribute to the science of Old Weather with you all, and hope to see some of you online throughout this new voyage.

[Randi]

Welcome!
Feel free to contribute to the forum

Good to see you here, Erin.

A very warm welcome Erin! It's good to have you on board

I planning on finishing HMS Welland for the WWI part of Old Weather by the end of this month and then will be looking for something to 'keep me off the streets' this winter. If you think I might be of some assistance please let em know.

Blessings, dean

I was wondering if we know roughly when the Seas of Knowledge project will be starting. I know almost nothing about the American Civil War, I'm ashamed to say, so maybe I should do some background reading - how long have I got to mug up on the subject?

I know there are a lot of US logs that need editing - but they seem a bit scary.

I found the US logs fascinating once I got used to the writing and terminology.
There are a number of US log experts - and forum discussions - here if you get stuck

We have Navy and Coast Guard ships to transcribe now, and we will have whalers very soon

We'll all be gamming about that ;D

[Randi]

We got off to a bit of a rocky start with some technical difficulties but we're hoping to get started imaging very soon!

[Randi]

Hi all!

I'm Georgia, another intern here at the National Archives working on the Seas of Knowledge Project. Although we're still working out the kinks on imaging, the muster rolls look super interesting. I can't wait to get them out to you all. Being prior Navy myself, I love seeing how some things have changed (ratings) some have not changed a bit (tattoos).

[Randi]

Welcome aboard, Georgia.

Welcome, Georgia. And I'm glad you're all taking the time to iron out the kinks at this stage - it should make the transcribing much easier in the long run.

Welcome!

;D

[Randi]

Just a little update for you all on the progress of the Seas of Knowledge Project! We're nearly halfway through imaging the muster rolls, and an optimistic projection is that we'll be finished by the end of January. There's some really interesting stuff in the volumes and we're all particularly excited to see some of the statistics on foreign-born enlistees after everything gets transcribed.

We also had a nice write-up by the Archives Foundation a couple weeks ago on World Digital Preservation Day. Check it out here: https://www.archivesfoundation.org/news ... n-project/

Rachael

[Randi]

Great!
Thank you ;D

Thanks for the update.

[Randi]

Hi everyone! My name is Sasha (SashaZ) and I am one of the new interns on the Sea of Knowledge project. As the daughter of two Navy meteorologists and a Marine who spent some time in the Arctic on USCG cutters, I am very excited to be be part of this project.

[Randi]

Perfect background!
We are delighted to have you.

Feel free to do some transcribing as well

Gosh Sasha (or do you prefer to stay SashaZ? ) - that's some amazing family background for enjoying OldWeather! ;D My dad was in the Royal Navy during WW2, but the remainder of the family are confirmed landlubbers (including me).

[Randi]

Hi Old Weather team!

I have another update on the Seas of Knowledge Project. The long-awaited Muster Rolls are now being rolled out on the NARA catalog gradually and can be found here: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/563603.

We've now migrated back to deck logs of Civil War era ships so you have those to look forward to at some point!

Rachael

[Randi]

Wonderful! Thanks very much for the update!

---

548 file unit(s) described in the catalog takes you to the list of muster rolls.

Exciting!

(I had to go to https://catalog.archives.gov/id/563603 first then selected '548 file unit(s) described in the catalog')

Hi Rachael

Do you have any idea of the timetable for the project, such as when beta testing will be carried out?

[Randi]

Hi Thursday Next - I'm not involved with the beta testing (just a lowly camera operator) so unfortunately I don't know the answer to your question.

Our NARA contact also did want me to clarify that the PDFs are not yet readable in the catalog, and we're still updating and editing some typos, but that will be happening in the coming weeks as more of the volumes are uploaded

[Randi]

Ah Rachel - without your own excellent camera skills nothing can come of the project. It's teamwork!

Indeed it is!
(maybe a little insanity too )

Yep! ;D ;D ;D

[Randi]

We don't yet have a specific plan for transcribing the muster rolls, beyond first getting all the volumes up on the NARA Catalog. The deck logs we are shooting are prioritized by also having musters.

Thanks, Kevin!

[Randi]

Looking for Logs in all the right places

[krwood]

Hi all -

Seems an age since I've posted something. It has been, like for many I'm sure, a trial keeping our various projects running. On Seas of Knowledge we've been dead in the water since early March. Our crew in DC has kept busy working on related matters, such as a complete index of Navy and Coast Guard logbooks, muster rolls, with urls (where we've imaged) and ship histories from Wiki/Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC). For the whole span 1801-1940. ~10,000 volumes. A one-stop-shop for logbook access and basic research.

They have also mastered the process of manifesting and uploading subject sets to Zooniverse, and I have worked out (I think) how to make a useful project using only tools available on Project Builder. One has to do with Union Muster Rolls and two other bespoke (one is for the US Naval Sea Cadet Corps). There is also a new one that will be public, dealing with a selected set of World War II Navy logbooks (19 ships x 5 years). The latter I envision as a gateway project that is both valuable scientifically and simple enough for a casual user, as well as being (potentially) quick to finish. See:

https://www.oldweather.org/ - the landing page has been revamped to point at this project. Click the button and check out the about page for more details. Or directly https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/krw ... eather-ww2 More to say on this later.

The National Archives Foundation has also built a website for Seas of Knowledge that will launch tomorrow at 5 PM Eastern (US). There will be a public YouTube live event / discussion hosted by Patrick Madden (Ex. Director) with me, Philip, and Michael as guests. Register here: https://archivesfoundation.org/event/ol ... itization/

More to follow. Kevin

[Michael]

Here is a video featuring Kevin, Philip and me discussing Old Weather with the National Archives Foundation. The first minute or so has no sound, it's just two slides, the last one of which is a list of sponsors.

https://youtube.com/embed/Vn--VyidsCI

[jil]

That was great, thanks for posting the link Michael.