Old Weather Forum

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On the weather page, please enter: date, locations, distances (nautical miles and tenths), courses, and all the weather data in the columns outlined in red in the spreadsheet.
It is not necessary to record State of the Sea.
However, ice mentioned in the weather grid should be transcribed using the magenta Sea column.

On the events page please enter: ice, location information, and sailing information.
Aurorae, volcanic, and seismic activity should be reported in the forum.
The names of US Navy and Coast Guard ships met should be noted. This gives the science team a chance to compare weather readings. You can include all ships mentioned in a single entry without a time or any additional data.
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.

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See Omaha: general for some general background and discussion.
See Omaha: examples for a quick introduction to transcribing or a refresher.

See Transcribing Guide to learn how to transcribe the data.
Post in Ask Questions Here or this topic if you have questions.

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07 January
Noon : Lat 37° 06' 00"S, Long 52° 02' 00"W

Meridian to 4 P.M.

At 2:40 the fore topsail runner parted near the fly block, dropping the top sail yard to the cap; there were four men on the yard at the time, three of whom escaped with slight injuries, the fourth, John Owens (Carp) was thrown from the yard and fell to the rail and from thence overboard. The ship was hove to with fore topsail to mast, a boat was lowered, and Lieut S. M. Ackley jumped overboard to try and save the man, but all attempts were unsuccessful, and the body was not recovered. At 3:00 the life boat returned, hoisted it, and filled away again.

R.I.P. John Owens

Three cheers for Lieut S. M. Ackley.

Tuesday, February 18^th, 1873
Valparaiso, Chile

At 9:05 called all hands to muster and read the proceedings of a general Court Martial, convened by order of Read Admiral Chas Steedman, on board this vessel in the case of W^m Curtain, Pr Marine, who was tried for desertion and found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment, with loss of all pay which may become due him in that time with the exception of $50.00, to be paid him at the termination of his confinement, and then to be dishonorably discharged from the Services. The sentence was remitted to two years confinement, by Rear Admiral Chas Steedman with loss of all pay which may become due him with the exception of fifty dollars, to be paid him when his period of confinement terminates, and then to be dishonorably discharged from the Service.

After this, they read General order No. 180 from the Hon Secretary of the Navy, awarding medals of honor to a number of men from various ships which took part in the capture of the Corean Forts, June 11^th, 1871.

March 6
Valparaiso, Chile


Ooops, sorry!

By order of Comd'g Officer, placed James Engleman (Sea) in solitary confinement on bread and water for five days for carelessness aloft in dropping his knife on deck from mizzen top.

March 7
Valparaiso

What a good log-keeper, giving us all the detail...

Put in use the new mercurial Barometer, difference between the Mercurial and Aneroid being one tenth inch, the first having highest reading.

The plot from Calc's WR Plot sheet.

March 13
Valparaiso

There must be something not quite right with this ship and crew. Lots of desertions, and a couple of courts martial for deserting. This one caught my eye:

00:00 John O'Connell (Lds) and Hugh W. Fall (Lds) attempted to desert from the ship by swimming.

Wednesday, April 9^th
Noon position: Lat 25° 56' 00"S, Long 71° 41' 00"W

0900:Passed through a large shoal of Sperm whales.

April 15^th
Iquique, Chile

These old ships are interesting. At 1:15 PM they leave Iquique Harbor using their engines. Later, they stop the engines and switch to sail. At 3:30 PM, they start hoisting up the propeller, which is completed an hour later. Sometimes they take down the smoke funnel. Then, when they want to use the engines, they need to reverse the process. Who knew!!!!

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There is a human powered race from Port Angeles to Ketchikan. I was reading the account of an all women's team who had a sail boat. When the air was calm, they lowered a propeller into the water that was driven by two people sitting on bicycle seats, which hung over the stern, and they pedaled furiously for an hour or two until they were relieved by a second pair. The sprocket on the pedals was connected by a chain to the propeller which then propelled the boat forward. When they had enough wind, like the Omaha, they raised the propeller out of the water.

As a point of interest, there was one man who took a stand up paddle board and completed the race in a reasonably good time. He made the fastest time through the Seymour Narrows, reaching a top speed of 30 knots (or maybe kmh. I forget the units, and it was written for the general public). All the various boats had to wait for slack water, but he was small and maneuverable enough to brave the narrows at full flood.

Agreed.
I love the old logs!

I have fond memories of Iquique from HMS Avoca in Phase 1.

Someone casually suggested keeping a list of place names. When I reached 600 for Latin America I posted it. It turned out that I was not the only one. Other transcribers posted their lists. Now Matteo manages the Geographical help board with 30,000 placenames + aliases as of July 2020. He also created the Old Weather Toolkit website!

You don't have to be crazy to work here.
We will train you

May 1^st
Callao

Here goes another barometer. I didn't notice anything in the log to say when it was condemned, but there were a few weird readings a few days back.

Turned into store the following articles in the Navigator's department, condemned by survey: two log glasses; two thermometers; six log clips; three horn lanterns: six deck lanterns; one berth deck lantern; one deck trumpet; one drum; one mercurial barometer.

25 August 1873
Coquimbo, Chile

1015: Rear Admiral Chas Steedman and Staff came on board to inspect the ship.

30 August 1873
Coquimbo, Chile

8 AM. Transferred 2250 lbs of Soap to the Pensacola.

18 September 1873
Valparaiso, Chile

At Sunrise, dressed ship (Rainbow) in honor of the Anniversary of the independence of Chile.

Later, the Captain and four officers went ashore to participate in the celebrations and, at noon, they fired a 21 gun salute.

4 October
Valparaiso

USS Richmond arrived.



She joins us and the USS Pensacola which, I think, is a prettier ship. But, it may just be a better picture.