Old Weather Forum

Below are sample transcriptions with a few basic notes.
Clicking on an image where the cursor changes to a hand will open the image full-size in a separate tab.

For detailed explanations, see Transcribing Guide.

The first time you open a page in LibreOffice, it may look something like this.


You can adjust the grid alignment. It does not have to be exact!

Example 1: In port

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Weather page




Date:

• Transcribing the date is crucial.
  Pages are indexed by their date.

Weather grid:

• Case does not matter. Type what you see, or use whichever case you prefer.
• You may want to turn on Pressure Data Auto-Fill (on the Setup sheet).
  With that, once you have entered a valid pressure, all you need to do is enter the last two digits.
• In Weather by Symbol, they appear to be using the weather codes shown here rather than the Beaufort codes used in most of our log books.

Location:

• In general, there is no need to transcribe the location at the top of the page.
  However, in this case it is the only location information on the page.
  The time field should be left blank.
  Michael has pointed out that he knows the location at the top of the page from the previous page, so it is optional.
  However, if no location is entered you will get a warning when you write the data.
• It does not matter exactly where you click provided that it is in the blue box.
• San Diego, California can be shortened to San Diego since the state is obvious in this case.

Completed weather page:

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Events page




When the ship is in port, there are generally no events that need to be transcribed, and there is no need to upload the page.

However, we are now asking for the names of other US government ships (USS and USCGC) met.
This is to allow the science team to compare instrument readings between ships.
For more information, see Examining Logbook Pages from the Albatross Ship for Aug 23, 1899 - Oct 30, 1900


Ship:

To make this as easy as possible, you can:

• List all ships met on a given day in a single entry without a time.
• Omit ships that were noted on previous days.
  However, if a ship is absent from the log and then reappears, please note it again.

Date:

• The date shown will be the last date entered. Normally it will be from the corresponding weather page.
• If it is not correct, it can be edited using the Log | Events toggle to show the date entry box.

Example 2: Sailing Information

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Weather page




Date:

• Transcribing the date is crucial.
  Pages are indexed by their date.

Weather grid:

• Nautical miles and tenths are combined into a single, decimal number.
• You only need to transcribe By Revs (magenta column) if the By Log column was not filled in.
• All Shaft Average Revolutions are not needed.
• The value "89" for Total Amount of Sky Covered in Tenths at 2am is obviously an error.
  However, it should be transcribed as it appears in the log (TWYS).
  Evaluating the data is the science team's responsibility.
  If you want to, you can add a Transcriber Comment in the blue box under the weather grid and/or post a comment in the discussion topic for the Ship-Year.
• For additional information, see the notes under previous example.

Locations:

• Some log books specify latitude and longitude as either Observed or DR (dead reckoning).
  These logs do not, so Not Specified should be used as the Type.
• There is no need to transcribe the location at the top of the page because noon and 8pm locations are given.
• For additional information, see the notes under previous example.

Sea surface temperature:

• The science team has asked us to transcribe both Water Main Injection and Sea Temp Surf.
  Philip Brohan says: "The traditional way to measure sea temperature is to throw a bucket over the side to get some sea and stick a thermometer in the bucketful. Round about the middle of the twentieth century mariners mostly stopped doing this and just recorded the temperature of the sea-water they were pumping into the engine room for cooling instead. These two measurement methods don't give quite the same temperature and the difference is a major headache for estimates of global warming - it's hard to tell whether temperature changes seen in this period are real changes in the temperature of the sea-surface, or just artifacts of ships changing their measurement technique."
  If you are really curious see http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10. ... 2.0.CO%3B2.
• The other sea data in this table should be ignored except if ice is mentioned.

Completed weather page:

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Events page




Date:

• The date shown will be the last date entered. Normally it will be from the corresponding weather page.
• If it is not correct, it can be edited using the Log | Events toggle to show the date entry box.

Sailing Information:

• Michael uses information from bearings, course changes, and stopping and starting to calculate the ship's hourly position.
  For an example of his work, see Bear 1891.
  Calculating Locations gives a description of the process.

• There is no need to transcribe "Underway as before" because it does not represent a change.
  However, when in doubt, it is better to transcribe it.
• You can put everything on the same line or you can use multiple lines.
• When multiple Sailing Info events occur within the same hour, they can be combined into a single entry.
  However, there are restrictions on combining sailing information with ice reports.
• Changed course, course change, set course, etc. can all be transcribed as 'cc'.
  That not only saves you transcribing, it also makes the change easier for Michael to spot.
• You do not need to transcribe the degree symbol.
  In the rare cases where it is needed for clarity, write it out.
• It is useful to know if a course is true (T), but other abbreviations (pgc, psc) can be omitted.

• Bearing can be abbreviated as brg.
• Distance and distant can be abbreviated as dist.
• Mile and miles can be abbreviated as mi.

• These two events can be entered in the same box because they occur during the same hour.
  However, the two previous events and the following event during this watch need to be entered separately because they are different hours.

It is not necessary to transcribe anything else on the events page.


Completed events page:



Notes:

• You can simply transcribe locations as written.
  However, if you enjoy tracking them down, here are some resources:
  Alaskan Place Names -- Reference lists the place names we have found to date and it gives links to resources for tracking down place names.
  Alaskan Place Names -- Discussion allows you to ask questions and contribute the results of your research.
  You may also find Matteo and Michael's graphical Find Place tool very useful!
• PGC is Per GyroCompass. This is a gyrocompass located at a secondary conning station.
  PSC means per standard compass (usually uncorrected).
  For more information, see Standard and Steering Compasses

Example 3: Ice

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For help with transcribing ice, see Northwind -- Examples, Example 3: Ice






Although it is rare, occasionally you will see an entry with both temperature and text.
In that case, please put a comma between the number and the text as shown above.
Spaces are optional.

Example 4: Time changes

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Setting clocks ahead one hour

• Do exactly what they did and leave the 1900 line blank.
• It could be helpful to Michael and the science team if you transcribe the comment about the time change.
  
  Be sure that your note is within the blue box.
• Normally the table containing information about the sea (bottom left) would also have a blank row at 1900.
  However, in this case values were entered for 1900. Just type what you see.
• Other than that, transcribe the page the same as you would normally.
  There is no need to enter the course for 0100 through 1200 because they are anchored.
  The values given are most likely the ship's orientation.
  There in no need to transcribe the 0800 and 1200 position entries of Anchored.
  Only the entry for 2000 has useful position information.

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Setting clocks back one hour

The logs handle this case in two different ways, and the methods of transcribing are different.

Sometimes the repeated hour is added at the end of the grid.

• The note, at the bottom of this image, indicates that this is the data for 1900 after the clock was set back.
  
  
• This is what it will look after it has been transcribed.
  
  Add a space before and after the slash as shown above to make the data easier to read.
  Michael has requested that we use a vertical bar or a comma to avoid having the numbers processed as a date.
  I will update the image when I have time
  Temporarily increasing or decreasing the height of row 24 may make it easier to read the data under the warning message.
  
• Here is a section of the grid that has been enlarged for clarity.
  
  
• The sea surface temperature is also transcribed by entering both values, separated by a slash, in the same box.
  Michael has requested that we use a vertical bar or a comma to avoid having the numbers processed as a date.
  
  
• It could be helpful to Michael and the science team if you transcribe the comment about the time change.
  
  Be sure that your note is within the blue box.

Sometimes the repeated hour is inserted and the following hours are shifted down one line.

• Here you can see that 1900 was typed over the 20 printed in the log and 2400 was typed with the data below the grid.
  Unfortunately, they didn't correct the intervening times, so we have to assume that they are 20 to 23 rather than 21 to 24.
  
  
• This is what it will look after it has been transcribed.
  
  Because there are two rows in the log for 1900, the height of the 1900 row in the overlay has been doubled and the following rows have been shifted down.
  Add a space before and after the slash as shown above to make the data easier to read.
  
• Here is a section of the grid that has been enlarged for clarity.
  
  
• It could be helpful to Michael and the science team if you transcribe the comment about the time change.
  Because there is no comment about the time change in the log, the Type Transcriber Comment was used rather than Other.
  Transcriber Comment makes it clear that the comment is from the transcriber and not the log keeper.
  
  Be sure that your note is within the blue box.

Sometimes it is not clear what was done!
The continuity or discontinuity of the data may indicate which system was used.
Feel free to make your best guess.
You are can also post a question in the discussion topic for your ship-year or send Michael and Randi a PM.
Add a Transcriber Comment to explain what you did.

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Time changes of less than one hour

Some log books appear to use solar time. They make multiple small adjustments (e.g., 20 minutes) as they go.
This avoids having an extra line of data or a missing line of data when they change time zones.
There is no need to transcribe these comments.