Old Weather Forum

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)
• 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!

Welcome on board the 'Navarch', on voyage from the 20th December 1893 to the 1st November 1896

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 Posting Links and Images (A Guide). 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. Navarch 1893-1896, 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 Navarch'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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Here is a log page that has been transcribed to help you to be familiar with the writing. This log is kept by two individuals across this journey. Samples of each handwriting are available on the Handwriting and Spelling help page for this journey.
June 6th to June 10th 1884

Here is a transcription of the above log page.

Wednesday June 6th
Com with very light winds from
N Ship still in the Straits

Thursday June 7th
Com with light winds Ship
Stil cruising around north
of the Straits

Friday June 8th
Com with light winds from the
SW Ship just inside of the Arctic

Saturday June 9th
Com with light winds from the N E
Ship working off to the S ward

Sunday June 10th
Com with light winds Ship steering
S Pased Indian Point about noon
and come to an anchor off St Lawrence
Island

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Start worksheet (top section)
If you discover any metadata in the logbook please enter it on this page. Metadata means 'data about data', baromoter readings or temperature readings. 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. This ship log works in Civil time, see notation on Start page of workbook.

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



Primary worksheet


Weather worksheet


Remarks worksheet


Notes
As mentioned above 'Civil time' has been entered as a note on the Start Worksheet.

Here's a link back to the list of Navarch 1893-1896 logbook sections for transcribing

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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.

Navarch 24th September 1896
I've never seen one of these before - a stamp in a logbook, but not for a whale this time - for a capsized whaleboat!