DJ_59 wrote:Sun Oct 10, 2010 12:35 am
Time to let us know who you are, how you got here, what made Old Weather interesting to you and anything else you'd like people to know.
Also for newbies and older members alike:
Pommy Stuart wrote:Mon Jul 08, 2013 8:58 pm
I have started an OW people map at http://goo.gl/maps/Z2IsJ.
If you want your town (not address) on the map, message me with the info.
pommystuart.
I've been an Old Weather forum moderator, transcriber and (later) editor since 2010 when the project started.
I'm Australian by birth, but a (very) long-term resident of the UK.
I've been a transcriber since April 26th 2012. Following on from that I have worked as a Shipherd, an Editor, and briefly on the Geographical Help Board. When Old Weather Whaling (OWW) commenced in October 2015 I became a 'global moderator' with an especial care for that new element of OW, and it remains my area of expertise. I've read dozens of ships logbooks and am passionate about the benefits that can be brought out of such a terrible business.
OW fits onto full time hours at work so I'm often still on line here as those in the Americas come on line. I am delighted to be as supportive as possible to everyone working on Old Weather.
I live in a village just north of Oxford, England, and work for the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford as an administrator.
I joined OW very shortly after the project started in late 2010 and worked on transcribing Royal Navy ships.
When we started the on the US Navy and Coast Guard logs a few years later, I became a global moderator as well as a transcriber.
Like most people here, I joined to help with climate research.
However, I stayed because of the glimpses of history and shipboard life in the logs and because of the forum family!
I currently live in Pittsburgh, the "City of Bridges."
Like many others, I joined Old Weather shortly after it started. I first worked on HMS Grafton while she was patrolling in the Red Sea during WW I. Grafton is noteworthy because the handwriting in her logs has seldom been rivaled for its illegibility. That and the British corruption of Arabic place names was enough to make me give up, but I saw it as a challenge and persevered. It wasn't long before we were in the Mediterranean Sea, supporting the landings at Gallipoli, engaging with German aircraft and submarines, firing back atTurkish gun batteries and rescuing survivors from sinking ships. Needless to say, I was addicted. I found other OW folk were glad to answer my questions, and eventually I was able to help others, too.
Many of them have become good friends, although Stuart is the only OW person who I've actually met in person.
So, I've learned a lot of history from seeing many parts of the world through the eyes of ordinary people living through extraordinary times, I've made some wonderful friends and I'm working on a project vital for for understanding climate change. What more could a person want! Oh yeah, legible writing on the part of the log keepers.
My name is Maikel, I'm Dutch, and I think I can be considered somewhat of an OW veteran.
The combination of climate research and maritime history is what attracted me to OW, and somewhere in the first half of 2011 I started transcribing my first Royal Navy ship.
I'm also an editor for naval-history.net, where the log-books are published after being transcribed and edited.
When editing the first of my ships I wanted to know what her journey would look like plotted on a map, and Journey Plotter was born.
You can read more about Journey Plotter in this topic: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=126
I'm one of the longest-serving on this project, having first joined when it was less than two weeks old.
Yet ironically, I'm almost certainly the youngest of us veterans at 26 (so 16 when I started!).
At first, I was simply curious and interested in doing something new. But as time went by, I found myself contributing more and more and became very active in the forum as well. It feels really great to be part of a community and working for a worthy cause, which is why I've stuck with OW through a lot of big moments in my life - school graduation, gap year, Bachelor's degree, and two jobs (so far) in software development. Looks like I'm gonna be here till my last dying day!
Today, I continue to contribute quite a bit to the Arctic part of OW (AKA Ice Hunting) and stay in touch with fellow OW'ers who I've befriended.
I also do a running gag in the Dockside Gallery: Every Saturday, I post a work of art along with a humorous, OW-related caption. That has been great fun - when I first started over four years ago, I thought it was just a one-off (9+or two-off) joke and wouldn't last long. Major underestimation!
While I have plenty of material to keep said gag running for a long time, I am always open to suggestions from other people (and will give them credit, of course). Just drop me a PM!
I'm another old salt who moved from weather to editing. After completing all the available RN logs I've now started on the US ones. My current ship is sailing in the 1840s so as well as getting to grips with the sailing terms I'm grappling with trying to identify ships referred to in the log when there are far fewer resources on line. The handwriting takes a bit of getting used to as well, especially when the log keepers change.
Every so often there is a spate of floggings, usually 12 strokes, so I think they must save them up for a crew lesson. I've also discovered that the suppliers were not averse to short weight, especially in the barrels of beef and pork. I can see why scurvy was so common, pickles, raisins and dried apples seem to be the only sources of Vit C in regular supply.
I live just outside Glasgow which came in useful for obscure places around the Clyde in the WW1 logs. I haven't met any OWers in real life but I have enjoyed chatting with people through the forum and the occasional e-mail. Looking at the number of available logs I can see me here until the good Lord calls me to a different port.
Another old hand here. I started transcribing about November 2011 when the project was mentioned on a science program on BBC Radio 4. I think it's the mixture of science, history, geography and just weird random bits of information you come across that keeps me interested. Also help and sympathy from other forum members when the log keepers hand writing or navigation skills are a little less than ideal!
I've transcribed the RN logs and the earlier US logs (especially enjoying Jeanette and Bear) but at the moment I'm just editing RN logs. One of theses days I'll get back into transcribing
I'm a differently-young (turned 44 this year) hand from Italy, and joined the OW peeking around zooniverse projects around 2011 or 2012, but had not joined the forum until the arrival US ships (mostly because i wasn't used at all to interact with other people in english - it seems a century has passed! My english is still goofy, but it has improved a lot since when i started).
I'm mostly interested in history, and all these logbooks were an amazing snapshot of the past.
In these years of OW my love for history has grown, mostly for all the new horizons these logbooks have opened. I knew a very little part of WW1 and WW2 history at that time... those logpages have often sent me to check on the internet and to buy books to deepen some aspect i didn't know before.
Since we reworked the Geographical Help section in 2015 i've also started gathering places found in the logbooks inside a database (at a certain point i've started retrieving them from already edited RN ships in naval-history) from which we can create all the contents for reference threads, csv, kmls and google maps. Along with Michael and using the same geographic database, we developed a set of tools for transcribers (you can find them on the Old Weather Toolkit website). I found that finding the location of a ship while reading logbooks reporting obscure and forgotten placenames was indeed a very funny task.
In 2014 I became a dad (the birth of my first child was properly announced on the forum ) and when the second kid has born in 2018 i've had a very rapid decrease in the already scarce spare time. I'm not transcribing anymore and even if from time to time i'm very tempted to ask for ship editing or attempt OW Ice, i've never found enough free time.
I'm currently mantaining the Geographical Help Board and the Old Weather Toolkit site. Lately i've offered Geographic assistance for the editing of some RN ships cruising in Norway and White Sea, which has been a very interesting task.
Name is Maria Elena Cordova, currently a weather forecaster for the Airforce. Brand new transcriber and its been a pleasure! Although, I do wish I had more time on my hands to get more done. I find transcribing, fun, fascinating and challenging too. That's good right?
I want to thank everyone for being so patient with me as I ask a million questions about the smallest things when transcribing and for always making it so easy for me to understand.
Alejo here-- hello from Berkeley, CA! Apologies in advance for the length of this post, but here goes...
I'm a PhD candidate in Geography at UC Berkeley where I’ve been working with the Bancroft Library’s George Davidson papers (1845-1911). As a complement to his pioneering survey work for the first Pacific Coast Pilot and Coast Pilot of Alaska, Davidson (who headed the Pacific branch of the US Coast Survey for nearly half a century) frequently corresponded with captains from the RCS, USN, and various whalers to supplement his expansive scientific studies of North Pacific/Arctic geography. My broader dissertation project uses Davidson's papers as a lens into the complex relationship between North Pacific/Arctic environmental history, geopolitics & political economy, and histories of science and technology from roughly 1867 through about 1917 (though I often stray further back and forward). Having spent some time doing intermittent Zooniverse work in the past (primarily on the kelp identification project), I knew about Old Weather, and had always meant to participate at some point. Now that I'm cut off from my archival research at the Bancroft due to COVID19, it seems like the perfect time to jump in and contribute to a very exciting collective project! Looking forward to adding another set of eyes to a wonderful effort, and to learning from you all.
A couple of side interests I'd like to mention, in hopes of finding other folks with similar interests (and/or advice on logs to explore!):
First, from an environmental history perspective: while whaling is of course a central theme for OW, I'm also curious to know if other key sea creatures-- specifically, sea otter and later fur seals-- come up frequently in the logs. I know that for RCS logs seizures are recorded (and can also be found in published reports to Congress etc), but has anyone found descriptions/observations of fur seal populations unrelated to those enforcement actions? Or otters for that matter? I find the fur seal controversy and eventual 1911 treaty fascinating as an early attempt to use population biology as the basis for conservation policy and legal claim to territory. The otter story is also quite incredible (Jim Estes' at UC Santa Cruz's work on trophic cascades using otter populations to reconstruct ecological histories in the Aleutians is the standout, but if you haven't heard of it, someone please ask me about the US Navy's "Operation Warm Coat" prior to nuclear testing on Amchitka).
Second: I'm also especially interested in the way that these log books give us a glimpse into the ever-present contributions of Unangan, Sugpiaq, Yupik, Iñupiat, Chukchi and other indigenous peoples to building regional oceanographic, geographic, and ecological scientific knowledge. Some of the materials I've worked with offer this glimpse from other angles: William Healy Dall's papers, for example, note several instances (from diary entries to line-items in expedition budgets) in which he drew heavily on local knowledge for his fieldwork. Davidson asked various captains (including Capt. Healy of Corwin/Bear/Thetis fame-- or infamy!) in the 1880s, 90s, and early 1900s to interview elders in the Aleutian Islands for accounts of eruptions on Bogoslof (sometimes spelled Bogosloff or Bogoslov) Island, from which he extrapolated an early geologic history. For the ships' logs I've looked at, whether it's a brief mention of a "native guide", bringing local leaders on board, or the acquisition/use of "bidarkas/baidarkas", "kayaks/qayaqs", "skin canoes" for various expeditions or tricky near-shore navigation (more common in the 19th c), there are hints everywhere!
More often than not, however, the role of native expertise and knowledge is mis/underrepresented, described in deeply patronizing terms, or omitted altogether. Sometimes it's also hidden by the complicated cultural politics of race and indigeneity of the time, particularly in Unangan and Sugpiaq communities where "creole" and native families alike took Russian names, with some identified as Russian/of Russian descent while others as creole or native. In any case, I'm hopeful that some of you might be interested in sharing your relevant experience with the logs, and more generally working toward a more inclusive historical picture of how we build environmental knowledge over many generations (as you all have been doing for a long time now with OW!). Perhaps if there's interest we can open up a separate thread; otherwise feel free to DM me any time.
Thanks for reading, and see you on the boards every now and again--
OK, please tell me about the US Navy's "Operation Warm Coat"
I have seen lots of mentions of visits to the Pribilof Islands but only remember occasional mentions of seals or otters. Maybe some of the other transcribers have paid more attention or have read different logs.
Again, the logs have lots of mentions of providing medical care and transportation to indigenous peoples and occasional mentions of being helped by indigenous peoples, but not much mention of learning from them. However, most of our ships were patrolling rather than exploring, and the logs are pretty much limited to ship-related events
Alejo, I've recently started editing the transcribed logs of USC&GSS Yukon, led by WH Dall, to the Aleutians, Sitka, Unalaska and the Pribiloff Islands in 1873-74.
Captain Dall, Mr Baker and Mr Noyes are mentioned frequently when going ashore to take observations.
There is little detail but a lot of creative spelling.
It's a very basic log at this point!
A search through all edited ships for sightings of fur seals: USS Rodgers
30 June 1881
USS Yorktown
12 and 13 June 1892
7, 11 and 22 July 1892
USRC Rush II
12, 15, 16, 19, 20, 23, 24, 28, 29 and 30 July 1891
3, 11, 19, 20, 22, 26, 28 and 29 August 1891
3 September 1891
7 November 1891
A search through all edited ships for sightings of otters: USS Yorktown
20 July 1892
I discarded the Royal Navy ships, otters are mentioned many times, but as a mine sweeping device.
Searching for a single otter is difficult, mainly because of Otter Island being mentioned many times.
Caro wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 4:08 pm
Welcome Maria and Alejo!
Alejo, I've recently started editing the transcribed logs of USC&GSS Yukon...
Lekiam wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 5:59 pm
A search through all edited ships for sightings of fur seals...
Thank you Randi for the warm welcome here and via PMs, and particularly to Lekiam, and Caro for these leads-- Lekiam, this is so generous of you to put together, hugely appreciated!
Randi wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 7:33 pm
OK, please tell me about the US Navy's "Operation Warm Coat"
As for "The Warm Coat" (aka the far less interestingly-named Operation "Sea Otter Transplant")-- I'm not sure what historical expertise folks are bringing into the forum so I'll give a quick sketch of the whole story; apologies if you all know some/most/all of this already! The short version is that after almost two centuries of the Russia-China-America otter pelt trade (otter pelts feature the densest fur of any animal-- somewhere around 1 million hairs/square inch-- and fetched incredible prices in Chinese markets, earning the nickname "soft gold") procured by enserfed Unangan and Sugpiaq hunters (forcibly conscripted by Russian fur trappers), the population had dwindled to near extinction by the time of the 1911 fur seal treaty was signed. I should mention that this was the case not only for Alaskan coast, but the entire North Pacific coast; throughout the early-mid 1800s flotillas of "Aleut" (i.e., Unangan and Sugpiaq) hunters in their "kayaks" [iqyax (one-person), uluxtax (two-person), and sometimes uluxtadax (three-person)] were transported by Russian and American fur traders are far south as Baja. Much of the early attraction of Alaska to Seward and others was precisely for its fur fishery (the dregs of the otter fishery, with the relatively unexploited Pribilof fur seal fishery to replace it); the profits from the fur trade paid for its purchase within a couple of years. To protect the fishery, various governmental protections were put in place before and after the 1911 treaty, including the reservation of the Aleutian Islands as one of the first federal wildlife conservation areas. Here's the first catch-- because the Aleutians were considered a strategic military location for US control of the North Pacific/Arctic waters, the executive order establishing the Aleutian reserve included language to ensure the military could continue to operate in the area without restriction... Fast forward to the mid-1960s: the Atomic Energy Commission is looking for "remote" islands to test nuclear weapons following the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963; Amchitka is selected for what would become a series of three tests, including the largest underground test ("Cannikin") ever conducted by the US (a quick aside: Greenpeace got its start as the "Don't Make a Wave Committee", protesting the Cannikin test). Here's the second catch: following the ban on the otter pelt trade, Amchitka had become home to one of the most robust remaining otter populations around, and the conservation laws protecting sea otters were still in effect. So the AEC contrived a program to remove otters from the test site and repopulate former otter habitat with the Amchitka individuals. They even made a public relations film which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbz_zD00hk. In several areas the transplanted Amchitka populations became the keystone for the longer-term rebound of otters over the ensuing decades. And finally, some of the individuals involved in the project have really fascinating stories of their own-- Jim Estes, whom I mentioned before, got his big break as a scientist working for the AEC doing otter surveys on Amchitka; Robert "Sea Otter" Jones, posted to Adak during WWII, ended up becoming the first resident Aleutian Island refuge manager... Right, so that's the (quick version of) Warm Coat!
I wandered in from the old Old Weather platform. Thanks, Randi, for letting me know about the new site!
After shipping out on the Merlin, I took some shore leave, and only recently returned to work on the logs of the U.S.R.C. (US Revenue Cutter) Commodore Perry, in the waters of the Pacific Northwest in 1895.
