Storis (1951) -- Discussion: Questions, Comments and Coordination

[Randi]

NARA URL	JPG Link
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/38547953	January February March April May June July August September October November December

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On the weather page, please enter: date, locations, distances, courses, and all the weather data in the columns outlined in red in the spreadsheet.
It is not necessary to record Sea Conditions or Swells from.
However, ice mentioned in the weather grid should be transcribed using the magenta Sea columns.

On the events page please enter: ice, location information, and sailing information.
Aurorae and volcanic activity should also be reported.
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 3).
Unlike in OW3, where three transcriptions were required for each page, we are doing only one transcription per page.

Every transcriber needs to enter the date.
The date is used to organize the pages.
(If one transcriber does events and weather and they are in the same image, the date is only entered once.)

No transcribing was done during the ice hunting phase, so a full transcription is needed for the entire year.

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OW web site: Storis

Direct links:

• Spreadsheet
• Tracker
• File Upload
• Transcription Status
• Voyage Plot

[Randi]

??? Should have stayed on the Northland, it's 8 degrees F this afternoon on the Storis. Fortunately only a light wind.

Good afternoon Michael.
Whilst it is 7 degrees at your place, luck for you its in C not F. ;D

Indeed! We've even made 31 kwh of electricity today! Sunny skies!

Starting to cool down a bit in Juneau, 2F, March 5th.

That's nothing. On that same day, the low in Whitehorse was -37.8C and it was -40.6C on the 8^th.

OK you win. ???

At one stage some time ago I was considering doing Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay by car and back to Vancouver via Whitehorse. Not now.

It would be a good drive. I would suggest, though, Vancouver - Prince George - Dawson Creek - Whitehorse - Stewart Crossing - Tuktoyakuk - Stewart Crossing - Dawson - Chicken - Fairbanks - Anchorage - Beaver Creek - Haines Junction - Haines - Skagway (Ferry) - Whitehorse - Watson Lake - Telkwa - Prince George - Vancouver. The Alaska Highway, the Dempster Highway, the Top of the World Highway and the Stewart-Cassiar. You could also take a wee diversion and do the North Canol from Ross River to the Yukon/NWT border. I also highly recommend Mike Mancini's pizza at Keno City, and Keno City is a great place to spend a day.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/worl ... -city.html

[Randi]

I guess I do not enter 13 at 8pm & 12pm in weather?

https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/media/38547953/content/dc-metro/rg-026/559642/2017-01/storis-wmec-38-1951/storis-wmec-38-1951_0269.JPG

Those are badly written Bs

Out looking for a lost DC-4 and then we seem to be towing lost scows into Yukatat.
No mention in log as to calling off search.

July - Aug

Have not found the DC-4 but picked up the lost scows.
Next page we had this. https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/media/38547953/content/dc-metro/rg-026/559642/2017-01/storis-wmec-38-1951/storis-wmec-38-1951_0313.JPG

1515 - Bones and trousers found on shore line by (skipped) in Yakutat Harbor, Alaska and towed over to US Army Air Force for further investigation.

Following days search party's were sent out in the LCUP to examine the area. Nothing found.

Stay tuned.

http://www.gendisasters.com/alaska/4060 ... -july-1951

http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/topic ... alaska.htm

I wonder if anybody has contacted the Koreanwar site re the mention of the search in our logs. No help finding the aircraft but shows how someone was looking.

I volunteer you! ;D

Just done that.

[Randi]

Shades Concord still visible.

Docked at Juneau.
2250 17th CGD operations reported by telephone that FV Clarice ... was in sinking condition and immediate danger.
2304 LCVP departed to aid FV Clarice moored Juneau City Dock.
2317 LCVP returned to ship reported the FV Clarice had one (1) foot of water in the bilge and that the crew was in a state of intoxication.

;D ;D ;D

::) ::) ::)

I'm not sure why the Concord has such a bad name... Fake news, I guess. ;D

Thanks Stuart - I sure got a good laugh out of that one!

Is it just 1951 or does the Storis seem to nearly always have 2 types of cloud? ex. ns st
It has been like that all year.
Typical page
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/media/38547953/content/dc-metro/rg-026/559642/2017-01/storis-wmec-38-1951/storis-wmec-38-1951_0376.JPG

In 1952 they go for three. ::)

I have got those as well but not quite as many. ::)

[Randi]

Juneau, Juneau, Juneau. I just checked. Juneau is mentioned on 258 of the 365 days in 1951. Cape Spencer was mentioned on 28 days, Yakutat on 19 days, Ketchikan on only two. It sounds like they didn't stray too far that year. ::)

Well 1955 looks like the were on holiday visiting different places that year.

You'll go to lots of places, but they'll all look pretty much the same: tundra, water and ice. ;D

and lots of clouds ::)

[Randi]

The first five months of 1951, not including the trip to Seattle made at the end of May. Their excursion into the Gulf of Alaska was a habitat fishing patrol, and to two a crippled ship into Sitka.




Detail of the trips between Juneau and Cape Spencer. Imagine what this will look like when the voyages for the next seven months are added in.

The difference made by considering all the course changes:

Before considering the sixteen course changes:



After factoring them in:

I thought the remark at 0035 was interesting. Was this implying they haven't been using the International Rules of the Road up to now??? ;D ;D ;D

22 July 1951

0000-0400
Underway in Georgia Strait on the following course; 308 T & pgc making 180 rpms enroute to Juneau, Alaska; via Ketchikan, Alaska.
0035 Commenced using International Rules of the Road.

I missed that otherwise a comment like that is worth noting.

I will grant you the vessel courses does look a lot more at sea with all the cc done but from a point of view of the hourly weather does it make that much difference?
I think most people would mentally move the line with regard to seeing the actual course.

That said, it does look bust in some areas, maybe going overland would miss some of the traffic. ;D

Take a look at the first 10 days of Feb 1955 for a busy voyage. I worked on them a lot of each day.
It took me 5 days to do 100 pages entering about 2 or 3 location points from each events page plus the reqd 1 hourly and 8 hourly points. Finding all the CCs in that mass of words is hard (well for me it is).
When ICE is needed then you will get all CCs.

Perhaps they changed systems because they went from American waters to Canadian waters? :-\
I can't view the pages at the moment :'( >:(

I'm sure that's correct about moving into Canadian Waters - they crossed the border at that time, but that's the first time I've seen that referenced. It was especially significant after reading about all those destroyers crashing into the rocks off San Diego. I could just imagine all the other vessels sounding their horns as the Storis was heading north in the wrong lane and the captain suggesting that maybe they should follow the rules of the road before they got a dangerous driving ticket.

Ah, this is likely the transition from inland rules to international rules (beyond the territorial baseline). Which are annoyingly different. Some countries don't have inland rules I suppose 'cause it's kind of stupid anyway. But to make it better, there are three systems of buoyage -- A system, B system (red right return, and green right return) and Cardinal.

[Randi]

Here's a better example, Stuart...





The log keeper records the course at the end of the hour, so if they go 12 miles in one hour and they head east for 59 minutes and north for 1. Without knowing the course changes, you would move the ship north by 12 miles not east.

That comment describes the problem very clearly.
(Though it doesn't quite seem to match the images :-\)

It was just an example. These images show what happens when the course changes aren't considered.

There are other issues. If the ship changes from going east to going north at 1:00 PM, the log keeper should show the 1:00 PM course as East and the 2:00 PM course as North. Sometimes they show both the 1:00 PM and 2:00PM courses as North. Seeing the note in the Event log will alert me to that error on the log keeper's part.

[Randi]

The voyage for 1951 is finally done. You can see the voyage here, and you can download the KML file, which can be viewed in Google Earth.

This voyage pushes us over 512,000 lines of data collected for OW Arctic.

Many thanks to Stuart who had to suffer dozens of trips to lighthouses in the northern part of the Alaskan Panhandle. There were at least 1500 course changes! Here is a small detail:

Stuart and Michael