Shipyard Page. Well done Crew - this ship's voyage is complete

[ggordon]

The basic principle of OldWeather Whaling....
The reason for this project is that it is very hard to automatically sort the navigation and ice (and other specific items) from blocks of text. Having such pulled out and associated by line with date/time/position and page url offers the most effective means of turning text into actionable data. It also means that the data can be sorted in all kinds of ways.


If you have a doubt about an entry you can always come back to this principle, and/or ask for help on your whaler's Shipyard page.
This main principle will also appear on every Shipyard page.

Additional information can typically include the following which are entered on the remarks worksheet.

• natural phenomena (volcanoes, kelp, sun spots, auroras)
• the names of other ships seen or visited and which must be recorded
• crew names
• the names of other ships seen or visited
• reports of ice from other ships
• whaling details
• other animals seen

Where to start then?

• Transcribing: capturing the log details, and information resources which is a 'must read' before you start transcribing
• Transcribing: managing your recording workbook

Have fun while you work and please do enjoy the help that is always available here from the moderators, in fact from everyone. And do also feel welcome to join in some of the lighter hearted side of OldWeather in the forum found in the Dockside Cafe under Shore Leave.

You will also bump into the OldWeather Arctic project which also extracts weather and ice details from the ships of the US Navy and Coast Guard. Your help with OldWeather Arctic would also be most welcome!

[ggordon]

Welcome to the log book of the Belvedere from 9th March 1897 to Sept 21st 1898 (record number ODHS545)

The transcription of this logbook is complete. Thank you transcription crew!
There are plenty of other logbooks to work on. Check the Shipyards or request help from moderator AvastMH. Thank you


Here you will find an example transcription of details
This is also a place to ask questions and request help with oddities in the log
You can bring the ship to life by sharing interesting finds from the log pages and other information about the ship

General help with marking and transcribing whaling logs
Weather and ice records from the whaling ships of the USA which contains the following 'must read' topics...

• START HERE. General outline, the project and how to help
• Transcribing: capturing the log details, and information resources
• Transcribing: managing your recording workbook

Tip: use ctrl+Pgup or ctrl+PgDn to quickly swap between the different worksheets as you move through start, primary, weather, and remarks sheets to record your findings

Treasure trove of information in the Library
Over the years this forum has accumulated a broad spectrum of detailed information which is kept in the Library
Please do take time to visit the Library because it will afford you a great deal of help. However, do feel welcome to ask questions at any time.

Help with images

• If you want to query some text please supply the page reference (the reference changes as you view the middle of a page), and an image of the text if you wish. Help for manipulating/posting images can be found in Guide to posting links and images. If you have any problems with imaging this is the board to post that question.
• Accessing pale images. Here is an example (it is from the Atlantic July 1st to July 6th 1881) opened through the 'Irfan' program, 'color correction' and adjust the brightness, saturation, and gamma correction. You may have your own program for adjusting brightness and contrast. Here are the before and after images using Irfan. Click to see them at full size.
  

Names of the crew
Names of the crew and notes of other ships mentioned or visited can also be recorded. Belvedere 545, crew and ships met

To find the shipyard pages for other whalers
Link: Find your ship, & the full list of ships logbooks for OWW


Select 'view single page':
When the log book image opens you will see two pages. It is easier to read the details accessing one page at a time. Use the icons at the bottom of the screen:


You can walk through the Belvedere's log pages in chronological order. All you have to do is increment the number at the end of the link: page/2, page/3, page/4 etc.

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The following example page covers 3rd and 4th September 1897



Steam Bark Belvedere WVB Millard Master

Friday Sept 3rd 1897
Com with fine weather and strong
NE wind ships all tied to the ice
Alexander came in and made
fast to the ice gamd the Freeman
Alexander and Orca at 7.30 PM ice
open and all started for Pt Barrow
Alexander lowered for a Bowhead at
8.15 PM at 9 PM luff too and
layed aback in the morning steamed
to ground ice and tied up Orca got a
whale Ends with thick weather saw
the steamer Navarch in the pack with
sail set

Saturday Sept 4th 1897
All this day thick weather and light
air from E. to W. tied to the ice
at 5.30 got steam and steamed
towards Pt Barrow anchored at 1.PM
in 3 faths 7 miles East of the Point
and the Orca ends with fresh breeze
from W.


Notes:
Ground ice: note it in the sea ice column as '1', and in the Three Ice Words column as 'Ground'. The meaning may be variable but most often seems to indicate ice attached to land.

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Here is a transcription of the above log page. Click on the worksheet images below to see them at full size

Start worksheet (top section)
If you discover any metadata in the logbook please enter it on this page. Metadata means 'data about data'. See under 'Weather' at rows 32 and 33. For example, if you see that the temperature is in Celsius or Centigrade, that fact should be transcribed as metadata.

Click on the worksheet images below to see them at full size.



Primary worksheet


Weather worksheet


Remarks worksheet

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Warning: AUTOFILL function between worksheets.
Do not drag and drop the date or time on any of the worksheets because you may disrupt the autofill function.
If you are unsure that the autofill is in proper order you can check by pressing two keys on your keyboard.
You are certainly welcome to ask for help with this action.

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The remainder of this topic is for you. Ask questions and share interesting discoveries with us to make these logs live. Thank you for your help

[AvastMH]

The Belvedere 1897 (ODHS spool 545)
'this is the heaviest gale I ever passed through'



In fact it's such a tough time that he misses entries and (by the looks of it) is not even sure of the date at one point.
Monday March 30th 1897 (Monday was actually the 29th March which is faintly visible)
'Commenced with strong gales from E [...] under topsails + Foresail Middle Part strong gale NE [...] parted main t gallant sheets both clewlines and both buntlines lost 2 quarter boats Latter Part wind hauled to N took in foresail and fore topsail and hove to this is the heaviest gale I ever passed through Barometer 28+7ths carried away smoke stack'

The next entry is Thursday 30th March 1897 (it was quite likely the 30th March)
Commenced with heavy gale from N ship hove to Port tack at 7 PM carried away jibboom lost all the gear and Jib + Flying Jib Middle Part more moderate heavy sea running Latter Part same

This logbook has a twin, Belvedere ODHS spool 222.
Spool 222 logbook notes another worrying problem on March 28th 1897
April 7th 1897: 'Leaking bad Pumps choked with coal'
This log also clarifies Tuesday 30th March: '7 PM lost Gib Boom'. On the 31st the 'water gaining some all pumps choked with coal allmost put out the fires'

All in all I'm sure that they were relieved to get into Dutch Harbor on April 8th 1897.

[AvastMH]

A day when an epic endurance for survival started. It would lead to the great Overland Expedition run from the Bear. 21st September 1897 at the Sea Horse Islands (Peard Bay), about 35 miles south of Point Barrow.

Tuesday 21st September 1897
Com with thick weather steaming to the Westerd at 5 AM Orca got a nip and lost her Rudder and stern post and stove her at 7 AM crew left her and were divided between the Belvedere and Jessie Freeman and started to steam back to the Sea Horse Islands for shelter Freeman got a nip and had to be abandoned all came on the Belvedere and came in and anchored East of Sea Horse Islands in 3 1/2 faths both ships were abandoned near the Sea Horse Islands so we now are feeding 150 men



And there she stays until the 29th July 1898 when she manages to get half way to Point Belcher (not very far!).

[Michael]

It's such an amazing story...

[AvastMH]

It's such an amazing story...

Ain't it just? It's such an amazing thing to be able to read the log books.

[AvastMH]

Thursday October 28th 1897 The Belvedere is stuck in ice at the Sea Horse Islands (70.8852, -158.7021) a little way south of Point Barrow. They've been caught in a thick snow storm for 3 days with gale force NE winds. Suddenly there's a clear patch overhead and they see very bright Northern Lights. By the next day it's back to gales and snow...

[AvastMH]

Friday 19th November 1897 When the three ships ended up sharing the Belvedere the officers de-bunked to Point Barrow. Some of the crew went up there too once the carpenter had made bunks for them. The Officers took pretty much all of the soap. In another diary (wish I could locate my link to that) there's a record of some of the sailors stuck on the Belvedere refusing to work because they couldn't get clean. Looks like the wonderful Charlie Brower (Keeper of the Station at Point Barrow) dealt with the problem by sending plenty of soap along care of Mungie and his sled through the winter storms...

[AvastMH]

Notes entered onto Section A Stream B primary page of workbook:

[Transcriber's note: there are no entries on this page; https://archive.org/details/logbookofbe ... 8/mode/1up]
[Transcriber's note: there are no entries on this page; https://archive.org/details/logbookofbe ... 9/mode/1up]

[AvastMH]

The dates in this log are unsure after March 28th 1897 (18970328) for about 3 weeks. See worksheet 'Mismatch date with ODHS222' to see how the logs are *not* synchronized for that spell of time.

[AvastMH]

18970905 There is no entry for September 5th 1897 https://archive.org/details/logbookofbe ... 6/mode/1up