Old Weather Forum

Please post questions, suggestions for additions or changes to the 'Abbreviations' list here.

LCVP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCVP_%28United_States%29

The Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) or Higgins boat was a landing craft used extensively in amphibious landings in World War II. The craft was designed by Andrew Higgins of Louisiana, United States, based on boats made for operating in swamps and marshes. More than 20,000 were built, by Higgins Industries and licensees.

Typically constructed from plywood, this shallow-draft, barge-like boat could ferry a platoon-sized complement of 36 men to shore at 9 knots (17 km/h). Men generally entered the boat by climbing down a cargo net hung from the side of their troop transport; they exited by charging down the boat's bow ramp.

USS Darke (APA-159)'s, LCVP 18, possibly with Army troops as reinforcements at Okinawa, circa 9 to 14 April 1945. US Navy photo

Anyone know what the hash mark in the margin might mean? Next to Sunday Sept 5th and Sunday Sept 12th.

https://archive.org/details/logboookofb ... 8/mode/1up

Hi Mer
I've had a look through the log over the few weeks either side and noticed other hash marks. I thought that it might be two factors, other ships coming and going, and breaking out slops, but as I checked further into October those reasons ran out. I'll keep looking for a common factor for you
Hopefully I'll find an answer and then I'll post it into the Beluga's shipyard too
Don't worry about it being code for anything else. It's not common and might just be an oddity of Capt Bodfish. We've got another of his logs so I'll try to locate that and see what's going on there.

Could it just be something as simple as the start of the week, Or that the log had been checked for that period?
In some of my logs I get marks on areas such as Location then a note to say the log has been checked for that week at the end of the week.

Good luck with those logs, my logs have a lot more data but are a lot easier to read.

The Beluga markings:
Just a quick note to say that he uses three marks:
A simple cross (two lines), a hashtag (four lines), and also a crisscross (six lines).
I'll locate examples and put them in here for you Mer. Sadly haven't managed to find another log written by Bodfish (he's been on other ships but not kept the log). More to come

Thanks for your suggestions Stuart

Solved!!
I've spent the last couple of hours going through the Beluga log from 1897 to 1898. It was passing through my mind that these markers might relate to another set of notes. Then I found the dark cloud indicating free water on October 15th 1897, the death of Mr Simmons on October 17th, the 'dark horizon in the NW' from the log on October 22nd.

I'd already made a heap of notes at that point. So I leant over the table, picked up my copy of 'Chasing the Bowhead' by HH Bodfish and, sure enough, they are events that he's used to write his autobiography. The events above appear on page 153 (sorry about the lighting):


He's not used every marked event in the log book, but most of them. At times he's added further details perhaps from a diary of his own into his book.
So glad I bought the book

In conclusion - they are irrelevant to our transcription of the logbook.

From one of our WW2 ships
DRI for dead reckoning indicator
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED088693.pdf

Also: DRAI for dead reckoning analyzer-indicator

"DBP refers to the type of propellant (double base 'smokeless' powder specifically)." Kevin

I have also seen SBP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokeless_powder mentions
single-base powder
double-base powder

Added to https://www.journeyplotter.nl/rl/abbr.html lately:

A.C. Co.	Alaska Commercial Company
A.P.M.	Assistant Provost Marshal
B.W.G.	British (Standard) Wire Gauge
C.P.	Common Pointed (projectile)
C.P.C.	Common Pointed Capped (projectile)
F.X.R.	Foxer (a WW2 acoustic decoy)
L.M.T.	Local mean time
N.A.C. Co.	North American Commercial Company
P.B.C.	Per bridge compass
P. & C.	Purchasing and Contracting (Department)
P.M.S.	Paddle Minesweeper
R.N.T.F.	Royal Navy Torpedo Factory
S. & A.	Supplies and Accounts (Department)
S.B.	Smoothbore (gun, shot)
S.W.G.	(British) Standard Wire Gauge
U.S.C.	United States of Colombia
V.B.S.	Very Brock Signals

C. & S. - Clean and sober

E.g. J. Rennie (Pvt.) returned on board C. & S. 10 hours over time, and H. Herbert (Pvt.) C. & S. 11 hours over time.

http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/ ... _141_1.jpg

Caro wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 11:08 am : Sun, rise or set location
Usually used to identify a bearings point.
Transcribed as "sun"
The same symbol is used morning and evening
The dotted circle (without the horizon line) sometimes replaces the word 'sun'; for example: "Darken the ship at 'sun' set"

Example of morning reading (sunrise):



Example of evening reading (sunset):

According to Bowditch it is the altitude of the lower limb of the sun.

United States Coast Guard » Rank Structure & Insignia

United States Navy » Rank Structure & Insignia

TBS -- "Talk-Between-Ships"; very high frequency shipborne radio equipment of medium power, used for ships tactically maneuvering
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/l ... ww2/t.html

P.W.T.
This must be Pacific War Time - from the Dept. of Defense:

"It wasn’t until World War II began that the issue came up again. In February 1942, Congress implemented a law instating a national daylight saving time to help conserve fuel and "promote national security and defense," which is why it was nicknamed "war time." The time zones were even known as that: Eastern War Time, Pacific War Time, etc."

From Kevin

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 6-0063.jpg

Came across this source when I was trying to sort out WOS (Warrant Officers Steward) which may be useful.

https://www.cem.va.gov/docs/abbreviatio ... s_Navy.pdf

I'm editing a Coast Guard ship at the moment and she has just enlisted a WO 1st class. As a Brit I immediately thought Warrant Officer but the US Navy doesn't seem to have them, However, it seems the Coast Guard do and since we are editing more coast gruard and revenue service ships now could we add them to appropriate abbreviations currently designated as RN.

Another Coast Guard ship references sewing kits handed out by the W.C.F.U. or W.C.T.U. at 3.30pm
I assume it is something like Women's Committee/Women's Chapter ~~~~ or some such. Google failed miserably so can anyone help?
https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 7_0526.jpg.
Thanks for any help

Woman's Christian Temperance Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman%27s ... ance_Union

I've seen them mentioned in some logs.