Northland (1930) -- Discussion: Questions, Comments and Coordination

[Randi]

NARA URL	JPG Link	Location	Sector
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7284523	January February March April May June	Non Arctic Non Arctic Non Arctic Non Arctic To Arctic Arctic	- - - - P P
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7284524	July August September October November December	Arctic Arctic Arctic Arctic From Arctic Non Arctic	P P P P P -

There is no page 110.
However, there doesn't appear to be any missing data.

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On the weather page, please enter: date, locations, distances, courses, and all the weather data in the columns outlined in red in the spreadsheet.
It is not necessary to record Sea Conditions or Swells from.
However, ice mentioned in the weather grid should be transcribed using the magenta Sea columns.

On the events page please enter: ice, location information, and sailing information.
Aurorae and volcanic activity should also be reported.
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.
(If one transcriber does events and weather and they are in the same image, the date is only entered once.)

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OW web site: Northland
Direct links:

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[Randi]

19th January 1930 Oakland
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 13_023.jpg
4:00 TO MID:
7:50 - Observed small blaze on Hunt and Hatch old warehouse on wharf at foot of Webster street about five hundred yards from Northland. Sounded General Alarm and detailed a fire and rescue party under the direction of the executive officer to scene of fire to assist in preventing the fire spreading to adjacent wharves and lumber yards. All fire hose was lead out and connected together and a continuous stream of water was played over lumber yard. Other men were detailed with brooms and buckets to quench stray sparks. The fire increased in intensity until 8:20 p.m. when the city fire department got it under control and it gradually was put out. 8:40 Secured fire pump and all gear was brought back to ship. A member of the crew of the M/V "Surprise", fell over board and was rescued by Leut. Commander (E) J.E.Heiner and Jack Grimes F2d class.

25th January 1930 Astoria, Oregon
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 13_029.jpg

Got some ice sightings from the vessel ice-breaking down the Columbia River. They have a Fox-movietone crew on board as well. I was not expecting to find ice in Oregon. I always imagine baking heat, deserts and a vulture perched on a cactus. I have been misled by films.

Years ago I saw ice floating down Indian Arm, which is a branch of Burrard Inlet. Vancouver is situated on the south bank of Burrard Inlet, and we lived in the District of North Vancouver, two streets up from the water of Indian Arm. Several seagulls were sitting on the pieces of ice as they floated down the inlet with the tide. The ice came down the Indian River, which is at the head of Indian Arm. I might have seen it a couple of times. It was very rare.

The Columbia River basin extends into Eastern Oregon and Washington and parts of Idaho, Nevada, and British Columbia. These areas become quite cold in Winter. In this case the ice may have formed upstream where it was much colder and floated downstream. Today there are many dams on the river which would impede any ice making it into Western Oregon.

February 12th Oakland Cal. - Some new recruits.
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 13_052.jpg

Mid. to 9:00 a.m.
1:45 Carl H. Arn, A.S. fell out of hammock sustaining slight injuries. Placed in sick bay for Observation.

9th March 1930 San Pedro
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 13_083.jpg

9:00 a.m. to 4:00 pm:
3:52 Alexander Paul and B.W.Harper, residents of San Pedro, capsized the motor speed boat "Red Dog" and ships motor launch rescued these men, towed the "Red Dog" to Northland where it was righted. Paul and Harper were taken below and dried out and later they with their boat were towed to the Yacht Basin.

March 11th San Pedro
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 13_086.jpg

Mid to 9:00 A.M.
6:30 began firing thirty minute guns in observance of the demise of former President Taft and in accordance with instructions contained in Headquarters 9910 - 1130 of March, 1930.

William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857 -- March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909-1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921-1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt, but was defeated for re-election by Woodrow Wilson in 1912 after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, a position in which he served until a month before his death.

Also from that article:

According to biographer Jonathan Lurie, Taft "was boring - honest, likable, but boring". Scott Bomboy for the National Constitution Center wrote that despite being "one of the most interesting, intellectual, and versatile presidents ... a chief justice of the United States, a wrestler at Yale, a reformer, a peace activist, and a baseball fan ... today, Taft is best remembered as the president who was so large that he got stuck in the White House bathtub," a story that is not true.Taft similarly remains known for another physical characteristic - as the last president with facial hair to date.

The last sentence led me to discover that Wikipedia has an article on the facial hair of US presidents ::)

11th April 1930 Mare Island
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 13_124.jpg
1330
Delivered to Naval Observatory at Yard the ship's chronometers, #3218, 6227, and 2880.

[Randi]

May 13th 1930 Seattle
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 13_162.jpg

The following passengers came on board: Mr Robert Frothingham for cruise to Arctic, authority Headquarters letter of Jan 16, 1930 (CO-611-6641); Mr J.A.Allen of Wainwright, Alaska, and Miss Kate Allen, Bureau of Education Nurse, for transportation to Nome; Mr Henry B.Collins Jr., assistant curator of Ethnology, U.S. National Museum, and his assistant, Mr James A.Ford, for transportation to St. Lawrence Island.

Mr Frothingham has published poetry anthologies including one on Sea Shanties.

Here is a biography of Henry B. Collins, Jr.

https://collections.dartmouth.edu/arctica-beta/html/EA15-18.html

It has a brief mention of his work in Alaska in 1930. I'm working on 1929 when he and a different assistant were frequently getting off the Northland to pursue their work. The Northland stopped at a couple of locations in 1929 that appear to have been solely to allow them to explore historic native villages. One of them was Lutke Island in Siberia, not far from the Diomede Islands. I wonder whether the Northland will take Mr. Collins to Siberia again in 1930.

25th July 1930
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 14_033.jpg
Some familiar sounding places
8:00 A.M. to Meridian
stood in for anchorage off Thetis creek

Merid. to 4:00 P.M.:
Approaching anchorage off Corwin Coal Mine

29th July 1930 near wainwright
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 14_038.jpg

8:00 a.m. to Merid:
11:30 Twenty natives and three Umyaks aboard for walrus hunt

Meridian to 4:00, p.m.
entered ice field, reduced to slow speed and stood on various courses in search of walrus. 1433 sighted several herds of walrus. Stopped engine, lowered boats with native hunters and proceeded towards the walrus herd. 1515 completed shooting walrus. Proceeded at slow speed towards ice cake to begin loading dead walrus.

There was a very similar log entry in 1929. I wonder how many years this happened.

12th August 1930 Nome
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 14_059.jpg

Mr + Mrs H.D.Anderson and Miss A.Ross came aboard for transportation to St Lawrence Island and return; they being assigned by the Department of Interior to study and make report upon the habits and customs of natives of Alaska.

20th October 1930 Nome
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 14_144.jpg

Mr C.J. McGreggor, assistant meteorologist, U.S. Weather Bureau, aboard for transportation to St Lawrence Island and return.

Oct. 2, 1985

Clifford J. MacGregor, who led a pioneering expedition to the far north to show that Arctic weather had a strong effect on other parts of the world, died yesterday at the Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale, Pa., after suffering a stroke. He was 80 years old and lived in Beach Lake, Pa.

Mr. MacGregor, who served in the Weather Bureau in Alaska in the early 1930's, became convinced that most of the weather conditions in the United States were a result of polar air masses moving south and interacting with warmer air.

He believed that the establishment of weather stations in the northern regions would make it possible to forecast weather two months in advance and even seasonally instead of 36 hours to 48 hours ahead of time.

To prove his idea, Mr. MacGregor took a leave from his job in 1937 as a United States Weather Bureau meteorologist in Newark to lead a major expedition in the Arctic.

The expedition left New York on a three-masted schooner, the General Adolphus W. Greeley, and spent the winter frozen in the Arctic ice. From its base on the ship and in a camp ashore the expedition sent back daily wireless reports on the conditions found.

The findings led to the establishment of a network of bases to monitor northern weather.

Mr. MacGregor went on to serve in the Navy World War II and rose to the rank of captain. He helped to establish bases first in Greenland to help fight the battle in Europe and later in Siberia in preparation for a planned invasion of Japan.

21st November 1930 North Pacific
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 14_192.jpg
Meridian to 4:00 p.m.:
3:30 Sighted sub-chaser, believed to be rum-runner, approx. three miles abeam to starboard, standing to northward; too fast for vessel to trail.

I'm working on 1933. She was following around Old Maid II, Hickey and a couple of others out of Vancouver. Hickey ran into a fog bank and put the pedal to the metal and got up to 13 knots, leaving poor Northland behind. Northland could get 10 kts, 11 on a really good day. Old Maid II turned off all her lights at 2 AM and did the same thing. Northland was running without lights, too. According to US law at the time, they could do nothing as the ships were beyond the 12 mile limit, so they could just watch them. This log keeper calls the rum runners, "blacks".

[Randi]

The Columbia River froze five times in recorded history. The first time was 1916, and the last was 1930. The Northland was breaking ice as far up the river as Vancouver, Washington. The river is navigable as far as Portland. With the modern dams and dredging, it is not likely that the river will freeze again. Here is her voyage from the 25^th of January until February 2^nd. There are reports of people driving on the ice and, in 1930, a plane landed on the ice near Vancouver.

The voyage for 1930 has been completed, and you can see it here.

Many thanks for Hurlock's careful, consistent and complete work!