Old Weather Forum

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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.

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See Kearsarge: general for some general background and discussion.
See Kearsarge: 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.

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I have reserved this year in the spreadsheet and will start on it when I complete Shenandoah 1886.

I'm getting set up to start this log now.

January 29 at New Orleans, Louisiana

10:30PM

large fire broke out in Algiers, is under control at end of watch.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 6_0049.JPG

Algiers is one of the oldest neighborhoods in New Orleans; on the bank of the Mississippi River.

January is complete. In port at New Orleans all month.

Primary activity has been recruiting and providing initial training to boy apprentices being recruited to serve until age 21. One group was transferred to a training ship and tomorrow a group will be heading for Newport (Rhode Island?)

February 7 at New Orleans, Louisiana

11:30AM

while the steam launch and 2nd Cutter were secured to port boom a river steamboat passed close aboard. The swell and current in concert threw the 2nd cutter on the steam launch and caused the following damage to the steam launch, bolts holding smoke pipe to dome & boiler carried away - water gauge broken - exhaust pipe of pump broken - pipe to mercury gauge broken - throttle valve and dry pipe twisted. The 2nd Cutter sustained no damage.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 6_0058.JPG

I was wondering whether Mark Twain might have been the river boat pilot, but found that he was piloting river boats only until July, 1861.

Here's one I haven't seen before.

The cloud symbol at 1 AM is a dash. It was foggy. The the next three hours below that he used dittos, and then the next four hours dashes. I wonder why he decided to briefly use dittos.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 6_0064.JPG

I have no idea why some of these people do what they do. Part of the problem is that they are quite limited in their codes etc to record exactly what they see. The original dash with the dittoes was because the sky was clear above the fog. The next four dashes, to me, signify that the fog is thick enough that the sky is obscured.

I just thought the use of the dittos was odd. Dittos are usually used as a short way to say that the entry is the same as above because it's quicker than writing out the whole thing again. But in this case it would have been more work to write dittos than dashes.

I have been getting the dash and ditto combinations on the 1875 and 1876 voyages (plus a lot of the likes of Wd+Sd)

The use of dittoes instead of a dash is odd. I suspect they enter the data at the end of the day, and they go down the columns, instead of along the rows. They're probably in the habit of just using dittoes so much they don't think about entering dashes. If they're entering the data as it's being observed, they would work along the rows, and probably use dashes and even the actual values instead of dittoes.

February 20 at New Orleans, Louisiana:

Participating in the local celebration.

8AM

Took part in the Marde Gras festivities by dressing ship with rainbow & mast-head flags.

2:50PM

fired a salute of 21 guns with King Rex's flags at the main

First time I've seen a salute to a fictional king.

Sundown

hauled down rainbow and mast-head flags.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 6_0071.JPG

Rex Fact Sheet

With his grand traditions, rich and colorful themes, elaborate costumes and hand-painted floats, Rex is the King of Carnival.
https://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/par ... ewe-of-rex

Did you know that on the 14th October 1979, the first LGBT civil rights march took place in Washington D.C. Up to 125,000 people joined the parade, and it was broadcast live on several National Public Radio affiliates.

If we could tap hate as an energy source, we wouldn't need fossil fuels

I was among those 125,000, playing in a marching band from San Francisco in the parade. I got a chance to meet several celebrities backstage who were performing with us in a concert the night before at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall in a performance called, "Let Freedom Ring."