Welcome on board the Bark 'William Baylies' on voyage from the 15th December 1892 to the 10th November 1893 from San Francisco, mastered by George W. Porter.
Here you will find an example transcription of details
This is also a place to ask questions and request help with oddities in the log
You can bring the ship to life by sharing interesting finds from the log pages and other information about the ship
General help with marking and transcribing whaling logs
Weather and ice records from the whaling ships of the USA which contains the following
'must read' topics...
Tip: use ctrl+Pgup or ctrl+PgDn to quickly swap between the different worksheets as you move through start, primary, weather, and remarks sheets to record your findings
Treasure trove of information in the Library
Over the years this forum has accumulated a broad spectrum of detailed information which is kept in the
Library
Please do take time to visit the Library because it will afford you a great deal of help. However, do feel welcome to ask questions at any time.
Help with images
- If you want to query some text please supply the page reference (the reference changes as you view the middle of a page), and an image of the text if you wish. Help for manipulating/posting images can be found in Posting Links and Images (A Guide). If you have any problems with imaging this is the board to post that question.
- Accessing pale images. The example page used below, opened through the 'Irfan' program, 'color correction' and adjust the brightness, saturation, and gamma correction. You may have your own program for adjusting brightness and contrast. Here are the before and after images using Irfan Click to see them at full size.
Names of the crew
Names of the crew and notes of other ships mentioned or visited can also be recorded.
For this voyage, a list of Ships Met and the date are very important, so please visit:
Wm Baylies 1892-1893, crew and ships met
To find the shipyard pages for other whalers
Link:
Find your ship, & the full list of ships logbooks for OWW
Moving through the log pages
You can walk through the log pages in chronological order. All you have to do is increment the number at the end of the link:
logbookofwilliam00will_2/
page/3/mode/1up, logbookofwilliam00will_2/
page/4/mode/1up,
logbookofwilliam00will_2/
page/5/mode/1up etc.
Here is a log page that has been transcribed to help you to be familiar with the writing.
4th to and including the 10th of May 1893
You can check for more help with reading the text in the topic
Handwriting Help and Spelling
Here is a transcription of the above log page.
| Simple transcription | Phrases of text bracketed |
1893 | [1893] |
May Thursday 4th
Begins with fresh Winds NE ship working
to Windward under all sail other ships
in sight working the same | [May] Thursday [4th]
[Begins] with [fresh Winds NE] ship [working
to Windward] [under all sail] other ships
in sight working the same |
F'ry 5th
Begins with light Breeze from NE ship trying
to get to the ENE at 1 OC Light Airs from
W at 7 OC PM Calm
Lat 60.53N
Long 177.04 E |
F'ry [5th]
[Begins] with [light Breeze from NE] ship [trying
to get to the ENE] at [1 OC] [Light Airs from
W] at [7 OC PM] [Calm]
[Lat 60.53N]
[Long 177.04E] |
Sat 6th
Begins with good weather and over cast
Ship working in the Ice several ships in
sight working the same
No Obs | Sat [6th]
[Begins] with [good weather and over cast]
Ship [working in] the [Ice] [several ships in
sight working the same]
No Obs |
Sund 7th Begins with light Airs from the WNW
ship working to the NE through scattering Ice
at 11 OC AM was in thick Ice 8 ships in
sight
Lat 61.00N | Sund [7th] [Begins] with [light Airs from the WNW]
ship [working to the NE] [through] [scattering Ice]
at [11 OC AM] was [in] [thick Ice] [8 ships in
sight]
[Lat 61.00N] |
Mond 8th
Begins with light Airs from S ship stuck
in the Ice at 8 OC AM saw a Bow Head
in a hole lowered 3 Boats and tryed to
get to Him no success Ice too close at 1 OC PM
light Breeze from S I loosened a little ship
working to NE Mr Morgan on Duty again
Lat 61.02N
Long 178.40E | Mond [8th]
[Begins] with [light Airs from S] ship [stuck
in] the [Ice] at [8 OC AM] [saw a Bow Head
in a hole] [lowered 3 Boats] and tryed to
get to Him [no success] [Ice too close] at [1 OC PM]
[light Breeze from S] [I loosened a little] ship
[working to NE] Mr Morgan on Duty again
[Lat 61.02N]
[Long 178.40E] |
Tues 9th
begins with pleasant weather and fresh
Winds from SW ship working throug the Ice
to NE at 8 OC AM saw a Bow Head going Quick
for the Ice lowered 4 Boats never saw the Whale
after lowering the Boats
Lat 61.22N
Long 179.26E | Tues [9th]
[Begins] with [pleasant weather and fresh
Winds from SW] ship [working throug] the [Ice]
[to NE] at [8 OC AM] saw a Bow Head going Quick
for the Ice [lowered 4 Boats] never saw the Whale
after lowering the Boats
[Lat 61.22N]
[Long 179.26E] |
Wedns 10th
Begins with good weather and light Winds from
SW ships laying in the Ice 10 ships in sight
laying the same spoke Bk James Allen
| Wedns [10th]
[Begins] with [good weather and light Winds from
SW] ships [laying in] the [Ice] [10 ships in sight
laying the same] [spoke Bk James Allen]
|
Notes:
- Time: most ships write their log solely in order of the time of the event. Much of this log is written as the time of the event by groups of 'weather' then 'activity'. Consequently you may find that you are swapping to and fro through the day.
- A particular hour is noted as, for example, 10 OC. 'OC' stands for ' o'clock '
- A brief reminder that we use a 'space' to replace the decimal point in the latitude and longitude details when transcribing
- Lowering the boats to chase whales gives an idea of the state of the ice and is included in the 'Three sailing terms' column
- Pages https://archive.org/details/logbookofwi ... 7/mode/1up and https://archive.org/details/logbookofwi ... 8/mode/1up are blank in the logbook.
Start worksheet (top section)
If you discover any metadata in the logbook please enter it on this page. Metadata means 'data about data', barometer readings or temperature readings. See under 'Weather' at rows 32 and 33. For example, if you see that the temperature is in Celsius or Centigrade, that fact should be transcribed as metadata.
The ship works on
civil time (midnight to midnight) as shown on the
30th July 1893
'Begins [...] at 5 OC AM [...] at 8 OC AM [...] at 6 OC PM [...] at 8 OC PM [...]'
Click on the worksheet images below to see them at full size.
Start worksheet
Primary worksheet
Weather worksheet
Remarks worksheet
Here's a link back to the list of William Baylies 1892-1893 logbook sections for transcribing
Log Pages for Transcribing - apply here!
Warning: AUTOFILL function between worksheets.
Do not drag and drop the date or time on any of the worksheets because you may disrupt the autofill function.
If you are unsure that the autofill is in proper order you can check by pressing two keys on your keyboard.
You are certainly welcome to ask for help with this action.
The remainder of this topic is for you. Ask questions and share interesting discoveries with us to make these logs live.
