Old Weather Forum

---

On the weather page, please enter: date, locations, distances (nautical miles and tenths), courses, and all the weather data in the columns outlined in red in the spreadsheet.
It is not necessary to record State of the Sea.
However, ice mentioned in the weather grid should be transcribed using the magenta Sea column.

On the events page please enter: ice, location information, and sailing information.
Aurorae, volcanic, and seismic activity should be reported in the forum.
The names of US Navy and Coast Guard ships met should be noted. This gives the science team a chance to compare weather readings. You can include all ships mentioned in a single entry without a time or any additional data.
Other events are optional.

One person can do both weather and events (Stream 1), but the system also allows one person to do the weather page (Stream 1) and a second person to do the events page (Stream 3).
Unlike in OW3, where three transcriptions were required for each page, we are doing only one transcription per page.

Every transcriber needs to enter the date.
The date is used to organize the pages.

---

See Onondaga — General for some general background and discussion.
See Onondaga — Examples for a quick introduction to transcribing or a refresher.

See Transcribing Guide to learn how to transcribe the data.
Post in Ask Questions Here or this topic if you have questions.

OW web site: Onondaga

Direct links:

• Tracker
• Spreadsheet
• File Upload
• Transcription Status

I have reserved January.

Great!

January is complete.

Most of month was spent using QC submarine sonar equipment to escort ships and transport troops between Adak and outer Aleutian Islands. One trip was made to Dutch Harbor for repairs and supplies.

I have reserved February.

I'm a few days into February and so far this year has had no wet bulb temperature entries. There has been no mention in the log as to why. If the thermometer was broken, I wouldn't think it would take long to get a replacement. They just arrived in Dutch Harbor for the second time since the start of the year. Maybe there was something about this in the 1943 log.

Very strange. I just took a look through the logs from 1943. The log on November 19, 1943 has wet bulb temperatures recorded up until 11 PM, but starting with the first entry at 4 AM the next day, November 20, there are no wet bulb temperatures. There is no mention in the log as to why they stopped recording wet bulb temperature.

https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 3_0496.JPG
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 3_0497.JPG

Weird!

That is very odd, indeed.

February ended with a minor incident on the afternoon of the 29th:

2:44 Fire in upper engine room DeGaussing reostat box.
2:49 Fire put out.
3:00 Fire was determined to have caused no damage, and was cuased by overheating of material adjacent to rheostat.

https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 4_0076.JPG

I thought I was done with February when I transcribed the 28th, but February had 29 days in 1944.
February was another month of transporting troops and supplies, and heading convoys between Adak and other outer Aleutian Islands.

This completes February. I have reserved March.

Good work

I mentioned earlier that wet bulb temperature was not being recorded. I looked ahead at various pages and it appears that wet bulb temperature was not recorded for the entire year.

Another oddity is that I am currently working on March 21 and realized that the water temperature has always been in the range of 37 to 39 degrees; almost always 38. The ship is currently at Adak Island undergoing maintenance. Looking ahead I see that when they set sail on March 31, the first water temperature entry is 52 degrees, with varying temperatures on subsequent entries. It appears they may have made a repair to the sensor while in port. I'll watch for any mention of this in the upcoming log pages between March 21 and 31.

OK!

March is complete. A quiet month, mostly spent undergoing maintenance at Adak.

There was no mention of repair to the water temperature sensor.

I have reserved April.

While leading a convoy heading SE from Dutch Harbor on April 6, this entry was recorded at 8:30 AM.

SS DENALI departed convoy proceeding independently without permission at Latitude 54 degrees 15 minutes N, Longitude 164 degrees 02 minutes W.
Numerous attempts to contact S.S. DENALI by flashing light were unheeded.

https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 4_0124.JPG

The Denali had earlier been in convoy with the Onondaga transporting troops and cargo between Adak and the outer Aleutian Islands.

April is complete. I have reserved May.

Still just leading convoys among the outer Aleutian Islands.

A new commanding officer came on board near the end of the month and log entries changed from 12 hour to 24 hour time. Also text entries describing weather conditions started appearing. However, still no wet bulb temperature entries.