Shenandoah (1873): links, questions, comments, coordination, ...

[Michael]

Good find! The science team will really like to know that. I have been able to compare readings between our ships when they're close to each other, but there aren't many records of pressures from those times.

Those squares they talk about are, I believe, Marsden Squares or the equivalent at that time.

[ggordon]

The entry just mentions applying the change to this book. However, they are nowhere near Key West. So I assume that the error was discovered at some later date when the ship was in Key West and the note added to this log at that later time. So I would assume that this would apply to several of the Shenandoah log books. I'm curious though as to why the note was added to this particular page rather than someplace more obvious, like the front of the logbook.

[ggordon]

I have been able to compare readings between our ships when they're close to each other

I have transcribed many entries for other US Navy ships in various Mediterranean harbors at the same time as the Shenandoah, although I don't see mention of any in our OW shipyard or dry dock that were in the Mediterranean harbors the same time as the Shenandoah during 1873.

[Michael]

I see that the log throughout shows evidence of great carelessness.

[Michael]

Shenandoah is, so far, the only 1879 ship that we have processed.

[ggordon]

I see that the log throughout shows evidence of great carelessness.

Yes, I was going to mention upon completion that I believe that the water temperature entries for most of the start of the year were actually wet bulb temperatures. There are also many entries followed by dittos down the rest of the column that I am skeptical did not actually change over such a long period.

[ggordon]

On December 17, roughly 200 miles west of Casablanca, Morocco:

8PM to Mid

Noticed a very brilliant meteor traversing from the North to the South.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 28-036.JPG

[ggordon]

December 28 off the West Coast of Africa

2:45AM

A brilliant meteor appeared about 20° North East of Sirius. It travelled about 30° in a Southerly direction and disappeared. The duration of its illumination was about 2 seconds, the light being of a clear blue, so intense as to enable faces to be distinguished the length of the ship and giving the appearance of leaving a trail.

Noon location of the ship was Lat 20° 52' 00" N Long 31° 00' 00" W. At 2:45 AM the ship was roughly 50 knots to the East of the Noon position.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 28-047.JPG

[ggordon]

1873 is complete. At year's end the ship is headed West somewhere between Africa and South America. Ready to start 1880.

[Randi]

[Michael]

I'll start work on it after I return from the gym!

[Michael]

The voyage for 1873 has been done. Terrible hand-writing, and there was a comment from someone in the log about the sloppy and careless work by the log-keepers. Fortunately for me, Gordon did a fantastic job. You can see a plot of the voyage here and, for more detail, you can download the KML file and view it with Google Earth. There were a few mentions of people, which you can see here.


These are the weather statistics for this voyage:

Weather Element	Records
DirT	8754
Kts	8759
Baro	8760
Attd	12
Dry	8748
Wet	8760
Water	2
Weather	8754
Clouds	8744
Clear	8686
Total	69979

Shenandoah travelled a total of 8,975 miles.

[Randi]

Great work
Gordon and Michael !

[Michael]

From the science team...

Our European counterparts are going to love this data...

[ggordon]

From the science team...

Our European counterparts are going to love this data...

Paths were crossed with several other U.S. Navy ships along the way. So maybe we'll have more forthcoming. There were also many naval ships from other countries. I wonder how accessible their logbooks might be and what effort might be required to transcribe them. We are fortunate that the U.S. Navy kept a fairly uniform format over so many years.

[Michael]

You logged seeing USS Brooklyn, Wabash, Wachusett and Congress. Those logbooks have been scanned, and the first three ships have logbooks for 1873. For some reason, there is no logbook for USS Congress strictly between 1871-09-16 and 1874-06-13. I let Chesley know, but her group picks what data they want processed.

It's really cool, because we have a GIANT Excel file with all the details of all the logs in the archives. I extracted just the data relevant for us for the logbooks which have been scanned, and I saved the data in a Tab Separated Values file. It's then trivial to get the data for any given ship. Not all logs have been scanned, so if there are no data for a given ship, I know it hasn't been scanned. Here is one line for USS Wachusett:

Code: Select all

WACHUSETT       1868-01-01      1868-02-04      "IO, NP, SA"    https://catalog.archives.gov/id/169806331

IO - Indian Ocean
NP - North Pacific
SA - South Atlantic

The logs covering 1873 show the ocean as NP, so I suspect that NP includes the Mediterranean Sea.

[ggordon]

Do we get guidance from the science team concerning their priorities for what we transcribe? It looks like we're ready if they want more from 1873 in the Mediterranean.

[Michael]

Yes, they give us guidance, and our ships and years are the ones they want for now. Every so often they ask for a specific area and period. So, we did four ships around southern Baja California for a 12 month period in 1861-62, three ships around Atka and Adak Islands for 1944, and three ships on the Yangtze River for 1930-31.

I offered, and if they want the Med, they'll ask.

[ggordon]

Since they're paying my salary, I'll go wherever they want.

[Michael]

Got it! You're on the list for TD (Temporary duty).