Old Weather Forum

Please read the topic 'START HERE. General outline, the project and how to help' before continuing below. Thank you.

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.
Nautical, military, and whaling terminology is well worth a visit before transcribing logbook pages.

There are some external sources that can offer useful information on the general subject of the whaling logs, and whaling life in general:

• Introduction to Whaling Logbooks and Journals. By Rachel Adler, Intern, New Bedford Whaling Museum

Help with images

• If you want to query some text please supply the page reference (the reference may change 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 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 from July 1st to July 6th 1881, The Atlantic using Irfan. Click to see them at full size.
  
• Making life much easier when working between the images and worksheets
  Link to useful tips in: Practicalities of viewing the image and worksheet at the same time

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Important first principle
Having details pulled out and associated by line with date/time/position, and page url, offers the most effective means of turning text into actionable data.
The golden rule of transcribing is TWYS: Type What You See.
Transcribe the requested information as it appears in the log; please do not alter it, even if it seems to be wrong. There may be times when you need to select words from the log text, but never convert words to an alternative. There is just one absolute exception to this which appears in the 'Position' instructions (see below).
If you are in doubt, ask for advice in the 'Shipyard page. Example transcription, general questions and answers' section of your whaler's Shipyard.

Our project is to retrieve details from whaling ship logs and enter them onto an Excel workbook template.
The following is an excellent short walk through the contents of the usual whaling logbook. It is very much recommended as a short read before transcribing
Introduction to Whaling Logbooks and Journals. By Rachel Adler, Intern, New Bedford Whaling Museum

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Basic outline of the recording process
The log books from the whalers are divided into subsets of pages to work on.
The sections that relate to the far North of the Pacific, and the waters beyond going up into the high Arctic, will be the first sections for us to transcribe. Sections covering the South Pacific, or other waters, will be transcribed later.

The details transcribed from the logs are recorded into workbooks which are stored on a Google Drive. The workbooks can be supplied as LibreCalc, Google Sheets, or Excel format, as you wish.
The workbooks can be downloaded to your computer, completed and posted back to Google Drive. The specific details will be sent to you as you work.

There are 4 worksheets in each workbook:

START WORKSHEET
Provides the instructions for entering the log details
This worksheet also carries the log book URL, the main details about your ship's name, the type of ship, its rig, Master, Keeper, Start and End Date for the journey. These should be pre-completed when you receive your workbook.
In addition there will be an indication of where the logbook day starts on the clock. Many whalers follow 'Civil Time' where the day starts at midnight. Other whalers may follow 'Nautical Time' where the day starts as of noon. Your workbook should indicate their choice of time with a sample of log text to prove the type of day used.

PRIMARY WORKSHEET

• A date and time for each item for transcription (see note below). The dates and times feed through to the other two worksheets automatically (Weather, Remarks)
• Latitude and longitude
• Place/with bearing/distance
• Sea Ice
• Sailing Terms

Note: Some remarks, for example information about processing whale oil, can be entered into the Remarks worksheets as part of a general period of time - see the section below for further details

WEATHER WORKSHEET
Date and time will carry over from the PRIMARY worksheet
You will need to enter:

• Temperature
• Barometer reading
• Visibility (e.g. fog etc)
• Weather remarks

REMARKS WORKSHEET
Date and time will carry over from the PRIMARY worksheet
You will need to enter:

• Mentions of natural phenomena (see list below)
• Additional details of the
  • position
  • ice
  • weather
• Interesting facts (state of the sea, native meetings, seeing other ships, visiting other ships (gamming), whaling, noting other animals)

When you first open your whaler's OWW workbook you will see the START worksheet with its instructions
If you need to insert a missed date and/or time you must adjust the primary, weather, and remarks sheet. It is recommended that you avoid inserting additional rows.



Index of information 'how to' links below
START WORKSHEET
Linking to your ship's log page

PRIMARY WORKSHEET

• A date and time for each item for transcription
• Position: Latitude and longitude, Place/with bearing/distance
• Sea Ice
• Sailing Terms

WEATHER WORKSHEET
Temperature, Barometer, Visibility, Weather Remarks

REMARKS WORKSHEET
General remarks of interest entered into the log. This includes reports of ice elsewhere that may be found. Also: aurora, volcanic/seismic activity, animals & plants mentioned

1) First things first: how to access the ship's log

Start worksheet: Ship URL: Click on the URL to open the log book at its front cover
Warning: some log books contain multiple journeys so do remember to start at the page advised when you get the ship's url link. This will be shown in cell B4 in the START worksheet. And make a note to finish with the last page of your log section in cell B5

2) Date
Start worksheet: instructions for transcribing the date on the Primary worksheet


2a) Primary worksheet

• Enter the date in column A
• Format of Date is YYYYMMDD. Fill in 'YearMonthDay'. For example the 22nd of May 1881 becomes 18810522. There is no need to record the name of the day of the week*
• For every row of details that you enter for each ship you will need to enter the year in column A

*Note
If your ship is on nautical time the day runs from midday to midday. The date for those entries is the day that the record starts on.


2b ) A word of warning! Pre-printed log book dates
Many ships use date pre-printed log books. Below is an example from the Logbook of the Horatio (Bark) of San Francisco, Calif. on voyage from 18 Mar. 1896-31 Oct. 1896.
The square box shows the pre-printed date, which is incorrect
The circles contain the correct date, handwritten in by the logkeeper


2c) Provide the URL for each date entry that you make

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3) Time
Start worksheet: instructions for transcribing the time on the Primary worksheet


3a) Time mentioned, specific
Events may be given a specific time of the clock

• Fog at 10 AM
• Anchored at 1 PM
• At midnight saw an aurora

To transcribe, convert the time to the 24 hour clock 'hhmm'

• 10 AM is noted as 1000
• 1 PM becomes 1300
• Midnight becomes 0000 (zero hours)

Do check the Start Worksheet page for an indication of whether they use Civil Time (common:day starts at midnight), or Nautical Time (fewer instances: day starts at Noon).


3b) Time not mentioned, approximate
It is relatively common to get two timed events, with another event occurring between them but which does not have a specific time attached to it for example:

• 7 AM passed St Mathews Island, fog came in, Anchored at 1 PM

Method of transcription:
Enter the timed events as for Time mentioned, specific (above), and enter the unspecified event with no time in column B (cell B3 in this picture):



3c) No time specified (NTS)
Latitude and Longitude are often not linked to a specific time. It is likely that they are taken at a certain time of day, but without that detail being written into the log we simply enter 'NTS' into the worksheet. Other recordable items that cannot be related to a time in any way should be entered in this way.



3d) A general period of the day expressed in words

• Commences with Southerly moderate breeze
• Middle fine
• Latter tacked to larboard
• Ends with brilliant aurora

3e) Embedded time detail
For most events (e.g. all non-ice or weather), one can use the nearest appropriate time as described, and add any embedded specifics in the text itself, for example

• Latter Part ... Fastened to a whale, but at 4 PM it got away

If that were the only event of note that day the Primary worksheet would look like this:

'Fastened to a whale, but at 10 AM it got away' would be entered into the Remarks worksheet next to the time 'Latter'
NOTE as you enter 'Latter' into the primary worksheet it automatically carries over to the weather and remarks worksheets

3f) Nautical and civil time - how this affects transcription
For a helpful grid and explanation of these two time systems please read through 'Telling the time in whaling logs'. The system used should be noted on the workbook's primary page under 'Notes'.

4) Position



Before you start to transcribe take time to visit the Welcome to Geographical Help page, and then visit at least the Alaska Reference section. Many places have changed their names over time and you will be able to find their names both old and new. If you find a place that is not mentioned in the Reference section, please do provide details in the Discussion section for your area. Also note any alternative spellings that you find for place names.
The Geographical Help Board has over 20,000 entries all built by OldWeather transcribers. Source maps (ancient and modern) are given at the start of each Reference section.

4a) Latitude and Longitude
Fill in Degree (space) Minutes (space) Seconds (if given)

• a) Not every log will note these
• b) Some logs show this detail on occasional days
• c) Sometimes only latitude or longitude is recorded
• d) Some logs only record the degrees, but not the minutes
• e) Warning. Sometimes the longitude is recorded before the latitude - take care!
• f) N,S,E,W are sometimes omitted. If you are sure of the ship's position you can add that detail to the Primary worksheet. This is one of the very few times that strict Type What You See (TWYS) can altered

4b) Transcription format

• 1) Degrees and minutes: [dd(space)mm]
• 2) Degrees, no minutes: [dd]
  If you have degrees and no minutes you only note the degrees, because the minutes do not exist in the log there is nothing to record so that detail is left blank. Never replace a blank with '00' because that would not be a record of what is in the log
• 3) Degree and minute symbols: do not attempt to enter the symbols, simply transcribe the numbers
• 4) Additional information/data, for example 'Longitude by Land', Longitude by Chronometer (Chro.). Transcribe into the Remarks worksheet
• 5)Apparent/real mistakes within the log details (remember to always Type What You See). The scientists will note the discrepancies and decide how to use them

1), 2), 3), 4) and 5) illustrated:

1) Degrees and minutes: [dd(space)mm]




Degrees and minutes including where the minutes are shown clearly as '00'
Note that 'N' and 'W' have been added using the allowance shown above (Latitude and Longitude point f))


Degrees and minutes where the longitude is not noted
Note that 'N' has been added using the allowance shown above (Latitude and Longitude point f))


2) Degrees, no minutes: [dd]
If you have degrees and no minutes you only note the degrees, because the minutes do not exist in the log there is nothing to record so that detail is left blank. Never replace a blank with '00' because that would not be a record of what is in the log
Note that 'N' has been added using the allowance shown above (Latitude and Longitude point f))


3) Degree and minute symbols: do not attempt to enter the symbols, simply transcribe the numbers
Note that 'W' and 'S' have been added using the allowance shown above (Latitude and Longitude point f))



4) Additional information/data, for example:
'Longitude by Land', Longitude by Chronometer (Chro.)




5) Log mistake? The Mary and Helen is certainly at about 36 degrees latitude for several days. On Sept 14th 1879 her position is incorrectly noted as 56:50 degrees
Record what is written on the Primary worksheet, and note the discrepancy in the Remarks worksheet, noting that is your [Transcriber's note ...]. The note is placed in square brackets as shown here


Log mistake. Always take your time to double check what is happening to your ship. The Mary and Helen logkeeper has been at about 50 degrees South of the equator for some time. They turn to head up to the Arctic (note 'Bound towards the Arctic Ocean' at the top of the page) and accidentally use 'N' instead of 'S' when recording the latitude for the 29th December 1879
Record what is written on the Primary worksheet, and note the discrepancy in the Remarks worksheet, noting that is your [Transcriber's note ...]. The note is placed in square brackets as shown here



Place
Add a place name if one is given AND is pertinent to the ship's position
For example:
Pertinent

• 'St Matthew Island sited' is pertinent
• 'Anchored at Ounalaska' is pertinent

Not pertinent

• 'Bound for the Arctic' does not state the position of the ship
• 'From New Bedford' does not state the position of the ship

4c) Bearings
Bearings are ideally made of three items

• a note of the identifiable point (a cape, a mountain, a lighthouse, etc)
• the direction that the point lies in (a point on the compass)
• the distance to that point (a number of miles)

Never convert the fractions given (e.g. N3/4E) into decimals, always record the fractions.

Do not include the general sailing direction of the ship because it does not relate to an identifiable point. The exception to this rule occurs when your ship is sailing near ice.

Example (1) below has all three elements. Example (2) gives the landmark and distance only. Always note bearings even if they could be more complete.

Example (1)


Example (2)


A larger example with observations and bearings transcribed:


Example (3)
Log entry is 'Kept ship S3/4E so as to pass 25 miles to the W of St Mathews'
Note: St Mathews Island must have been EAST of the ship by 25 miles. The bearing record is: St Mathews E 25 miles:

5) Sea Ice
Important: Please read through the Ice (link) entry in the Library before starting to transcribe

Note
The vocabulary of sea ice at this time is not standardized and log keepers were not always consistent. Enter every term that is paired with 'ice'. That way we might even discover a usage we don't even know of now. For example Kevin Wood, our Scientist, suspects that 'ground' ice is used interchangeably with 'shore' ice, which is the same as land-fast ice today.

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5a) The presence or absence of ice in each day's log report is recorded in column J

• Enter 0 (zero) for no ice information that day
• Enter 1 (one) if ice is noted

Ship's do report the ice experiences of other ships (final example below). These reports should only be reported as Remarks

5b) Describe the sea ice in column K

• Enter three ice words separated by a semicolon aa; bb; cc

5c) Description plus additional information

• Enter 1 in primary worksheet column J
• Enter 'Pack' in primary worksheet column K
• Enter 'Pack Ice 4 miles off shore' in the remarks worksheet

5d) Description plus additional information

• Enter 1 in primary worksheet column J
• Enter 'stood inshore to get out of the ice' in the remarks worksheet

5e) Multiple ice reports in one day


Transcription entries in time order
Time: blank

• Weather: Moderate breeze from the N.E.
• Remarks: Stearing a Long the ice
• Place: icy cape
• Bearing: South
• Ice: Yes = enter '1'
• Three Ice Words: Flow
• Remarks: North of icy cape found the Flow ice Extended a Bout 6 miles of from the Land

Time: 1400

• Sailing terms: Started;South;North
• Weather: wind shifted to the N.W.
• Ice: Yes = enter '1'
• Three Ice Words: Closing
• Remarks: the captain thought that the ice was closing in on the Flow, so we started Back to the North a Long the Flow looking for a Plase to git in for Proteckshion

Time: 2000

• Ice: Yes = enter '1'
• Three Ice Words: Tied; Packed; Drift
• Remarks: Tied up to the ice a Breast of cape Smith the Drift ice is Packed in all a round us
• Place: cape Smith
• Bearing: a Breast

Time: 2300

• Remarks: Capt Hearendeen came on Board from the Land and Staid all night

5f) Transcribing all details



5g) Transcribing logbook details of reports of other ship's events. These reports should only be reported as Remarks
Log book Young Phoenix April 22nd 1885]
Points to note

• This entry contains details of the stoving of the Bark Rainbo, by ice:
  At 3 oclock Spoke B.R Andrew Hicks Capt
  Addams who had Capt Cogan on Bord of
  the Recked Bk Rainbo which was stove
  in the ice Rainbo was stove April 14th
  A.M. About Lat 61 degrees 20 minutes N Long 176 degrees E
• The Lat and Long highlighted therefore relate to the Rainbo and so must not appear on the Primary worksheet
• The comment covering the stoving by ice of the Rainbo can only appear in the Remarks worksheet. That ice is not part of the report for the Young Phoenix on the 22nd April

6) Sailing Terms

Sailing terms column in the worksheet
The most important question to answer is 'Do the sailing terms relate to the ice?'
If the answer is 'yes' then those sailing terms should be recorded in this column

Examples:
'Ship running along the ice'
Ice = 1 for Yes
Ice words: (there are none in this example)
Sailing terms: running;along

'ship working in a broad crack in the ice'
Ice = 1 for Yes
Ice words: Broad;Crack
Sailing terms: working in;*
(*there might be words about how the crew is working as well, but this word was picked up from the log because it was about the ship's movements in relationship to the ice)


6a) Sailing terms asks for logbook words about the ship's movement relative to ice:
Examples would be 'steering around', 'dodging', 'along', 'avoiding', 'stuck', 'beset', 'captured', 'nipped'








6b) Or conversely travelling unhindered by ice:
Examples would be: 'full speed', 'full sail', 'beating', 'full steam'
Note: although the majority of sailing terms will be a single word, some descriptions require two to four words, and that is acceptable as an entry in the worksheet. The format would be the short group of words are ended with a semicolon, even if no further terms follow in that particular entry




6c) General travelling words that are not pertinent to interpreting ice words should be recorded in the Remarks worksheet:
Examples would be: 'Port tack', 'underway'

7) Weather

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7a) How to transcribe to the Weather worksheet

• First things first. Take time to read through our specialist Library section Weather, sea, and ice terminology, and especially the Wind section of the Library
• Additional information has been added in the discussion section: Chat: Weather, sea, and ice (past, present, or future -- on Earth or elsewhere)
• Use this quick link to the Points of the Compass to understand the notations that you find

7b) Report containing

• wind speeds
• wind directions
• mention of rain
• visibility
• barometer (Bar) readings
• thermometer (Ther)

7c) Report containing

• wind speeds
• wind directions
• general weather descriptions
• thick weather
• squally
• thunder and lightning
• barometer (Bar) readings

Notes:

• The 'Latter part' weather is written twice on this page. the duplicated sentence does not need to be transcribed
• The visibility can be a single word, or a combination of words:
  thick, fog, hazy, smokey, thick fog, patchy fog, fog squalls, snow, snow squalls, rain, rain squalls
  Separate the descriptions with a semicolon
  If you have two words that belong together, for example 'thick fog', transcribe them together and finish with a semi colon
  here are some examples:
  
  

The barometer reading is shown as '29 9/10'. This is transcribed as decimal numbers 29.90



7d) Report containing

• wind speeds
• wind directions
• snow in Vis column

8) REMARKS WORKSHEET
Date and time will carry over from the PRIMARY worksheet
You will need to enter:

• 1. Mentions of natural phenomena (see list below at 8.1)
• 2. Additional details of the
  • a. position
  • b. ice
• 3. General Remarks/Interesting facts (state of the sea, native meetings, seeing other ships, visiting other ships (gamming), whaling, oil barrel/bone bundle listings, noting other animals, crew names, sick lists, accidents/deaths)

Whaling is a dangerous livelihood. When a death is reported we post the log entry in the 'Shipyard; Crew and ships met' for the ship, and also in Burials at sea and other recorded deaths... There might be other boards that the information could be posted to.

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8.1. Natural Phenomena Link to Forum section'The Science: What You're Doing This For'

• There are a number of natural phenomena that we collect to provide data to other projects:
  • Old Space weather: sightings of aurorae and sunspots We are looking for mentions in the logs of sunspots, aurorae, erratic compass bearings (and unusual radio reception in later logs). If you find any of these, please transcribe them as Remarks and post them in this topic. Be sure to include the date and latitude and longitude. Just as the history of Earth's weather is important, the Solar scientists are now looking to recreate the Sun's weather history as another important factor in our own planet's status. The Zooniverse project Solar Stormwatch is in its second phase now. However, the science team are still excited to receive the reports found through Old Weather.
  • Volcanic eruptions, please include a page link; we include this in the data that we send to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, to Ed Hawkins (a colleague of Philip Brohan's who is studying the effect of volcanism on weather), and to the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program.
  • Please note kelp for Dr Jarrett Byrnes of the (Zooniverse) Floating Forests Science Team
• Additionally you will see records of other phenomena that are interesting to note (and that might be picked up on by yet more projects in the future). Please share descriptions of anything that paints a word picture of the world our ships sailed in - rainbows, solar halos, enormous frightening waves, phosphorescent water, water spouts, meteors, you name it!

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8.2. a. i. Additional position details
For example:
'Longitude by Land', Longitude by Chronometer (Chro.)




8.2. a. ii. Log mistake. The Mary and Helen is certainly at about 36 degrees latitude for several days. On Sept 14th 1879 her position is incorrectly noted as 56:50 degrees)
Record what is written, and note the discrepancy in the 'Remarks' worksheet


8.2. a. iii. Log mistake. Always take your time to double check what is happening to your ship. The Mary and Helen logkeeper has been at about 50 degrees South of the equator for some time. They turn to head up to the Arctic (note 'Bound towards the Arctic Ocean' at the top of the page) and accidentally use 'N' instead of 'S' when recording the latitude for the 29th December 1879
Record what is written, and note the discrepancy in the 'Remarks' worksheet

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8.2. b. Additional ice details
8.2. b. i.

• Enter 1 in primary worksheet column J
• Enter 'Pack' in primary worksheet column K
• Enter 'Pack Ice 4 miles off shore' in the remarks worksheet

8.2. b. ii.

• Enter 1 in primary worksheet column J
• Enter 'stood inshore to get out of the ice' in the remarks worksheet

8.2. b. iii. Transcribing logbook details of reports of other ship's events. These reports should only be reported as Remarks
Points to note

• The Lat and Long highlighted do not relate to the Rainbo, they relate to the Young Phoenix (the lack of punctuation can cause confusion)
• The Rainbo comment does not relate to the Young Phoenix, the 'Sea Ice' and 'Three Ice Words' columns therefore remain empty
• Stoving/stove: the ice punctured the ship's hull of the Rainbo on April 14th

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8.3. General Remarks/Interesting facts
The state of the sea, native meetings, seeing other ships, visiting other ships (gamming), whaling, oil barrel/bone bundle listings, noting other animals, crew names, sick lists, accidents/deaths

8.3.a. Whaler Event from the North Star 1882 May 9th: The Rodgers Crew Rescue
The Rodgers burned and sank as she looked for the ill-fated Jeannette. The Rodgers crew were consequently caught in the Arctic across the winter of 1881/2 causing much hardship to the local Inuit. The Rodgers and the Jeannette have been transcribed by OW.


8.3.b. Whaler Event from the North Star 1882 June 24th: Gaming with the Bark Rainbow and J.A. Howland
A small insight as to how the ships worked to help each other at tricky times


8.3.c. Crew mentions and gam-ing
Two of the crew of the North Star get themselves into trouble...North Star 1882 June 27th

Practicalities of viewing the image and worksheet at the same time.
There are certainly two possibilities, if you find more ways to manage these please do post them here. Use this link to see these options [link]

1) Sharing your screen between a 'screen snip' of the log book image, plus a reduced size window for your worksheets
a) Many of us have the facility to copy an image on our computers.
That might be a 'screen snip', or perhaps a copy of the whole screen. Microsoft screen snip looks like a) below. You can 'catch' the corner of the screen snip window with your mouse and reduce the white borders around the image to save screen space, shown at b) below:



b) The window of your excel worksheets, reduced
You can reduce your excel workbook by using this icon at the top right of your window. Then grab a corner and re-size it to fill half of your screen.


c) Put the two images side by side to make transcription easier (click image below to see it full size).




2) Sharing your screen between a notepad/word document of your transcriptions, plus a reduced size window for your worksheets
If you do not have a screen snip facility you could transcribe the relevant details onto a 'notepad', then transfer those details into your worksheet. Again you can shrink all of the windows so that they sit beside each other on your screen. Notepad next to the image (click image below to see it full size):

then notepad next to worksheets:



And last but by no means least, you could order your images as one at the top, and one below....whatever you feel comfortable with

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