Old Weather Forum

Randi wrote: If you are in icy and/or far northern waters, please note any USS or USRC ships mentioned in the Discussion topic for the ship and year you are working on.
We are looking for other ships that might be useful.

Michael wrote: With just over 1,000 XML files for Bear, I was curious as to how the Noon Observed positions compared with simultaneous D.R. positions. There were 59 cases with Lat and Long for both Observed and DR.

This is how they stacked up:

Code: Select all

YYYYMMDD        Error
1886-05-06        6.3
1886-05-07       22.2
1886-05-08       21.1
1886-05-09        0.0
1886-05-10        5.0
1886-05-13        1.0
1886-05-14       14.8
1886-05-15        1.6
1886-05-16        7.4
1886-06-01        5.6
1886-06-04        0.3
1886-06-06       11.3
1886-06-07       27.6
1886-06-08        7.0
1886-06-09        5.2
1886-06-13        2.0
1886-06-22       14.0
1886-06-27        5.6
1886-07-02        0.0
1886-07-03        6.0
1886-07-18       15.6
1886-07-30        1.0
1886-08-11        5.5
1886-08-13       13.0
1886-08-16        4.4
1886-08-28        3.9
1887-05-24        3.4
1887-05-25       14.1
1887-05-27       18.0
1887-05-30        1.7
1887-06-15       24.0
1887-07-04        2.1
1887-07-05        1.4
1887-07-13        0.5
1887-07-23        9.0
1888-05-28        3.1
1888-05-31       38.9
1888-06-01        7.3
1888-06-02        3.4
1888-06-04       19.6
1888-06-13        3.6
1888-08-02       46.0
1888-08-18        0.7
1888-08-26        4.0
1888-08-27        0.8
1888-08-28        3.7
1888-08-29        0.6
1888-08-31        1.6
1889-07-04        4.1
1890-06-23        5.0
1890-06-28       24.0
1890-08-23        0.0
1890-08-24        1.6
1890-08-26        5.0
1892-05-01       13.9
1892-05-01       13.9
1892-08-13        5.0
1894-06-25        4.3
1894-06-26        3.0
Max:         46 n.m.
Min:          0 n.m.
Average:      8 n.m.
Std Dev:      9 n.m.
Number:      59 observations.

Not too bad, I would say. I believe that the largest errors occur when there are 24 hours or more between two noon positions with no observed or bearing observations in between.

This will be useful information for the science people because it gives them a measure of confidence in the positions at sea.

adflora wrote:Sun Aug 16, 2020 2:19 am The hyperlink below leads to an article in the Jacksonville, FL newspaper about a 100-year-old man who, when he was 19, sailed on the USS Bear and took a couple of Antarctic trips with Admiral Byrd.

https://eedition.idahostatesman.com/cci ... d-1600.jpg

Anita