Shipyard Page. Example transcription, general questions & answers

[ggordon]

The basic principle of OldWeather Whaling....
The reason for this project is that it is very hard to automatically sort the navigation and ice (and other specific items) from blocks of text. Having such pulled out and associated by line with date/time/position and page url offers the most effective means of turning text into actionable data. It also means that the data can be sorted in all kinds of ways.


If you have a doubt about an entry you can always come back to this principle, and/or ask for help on your whaler's Shipyard page.
This main principle will also appear on every Shipyard page.

Additional information can typically include the following which are entered on the remarks worksheet.

• natural phenomena (volcanoes, kelp, sun spots, auroras)
• crew names
• the names of other ships seen or visited
• reports of ice from other ships
• whaling details
• other animals seen

Where to start then?

• Transcribing: capturing the log details, and information resources which is a 'must read' before you start transcribing
• Transcribing: managing your recording workbook

Have fun while you work and please do enjoy the help that is always available here from the moderators, in fact from everyone. And do also feel welcome to join in some of the lighter hearted side of OldWeather in the forum found in the Dockside Cafe under Shore Leave.

You will also bump into the OldWeather Arctic project which also extracts weather and ice details from the ships of the US Navy and Coast Guard. Your help with OldWeather Arctic would also be most welcome!

[ggordon]

Welcome on board the Bark 'California' on voyage from the 4th December 1894 to the 7th November 1895
This ship has a 'twin' log book: California 1894 - 1895 PPL

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...

• START HERE. General outline, the project and how to help
• Transcribing: capturing the log details, and information resources
• Transcribing: managing your recording workbook

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: California, crew and ships met

To find the shipyard pages for other whalers
Link: Find your ship, & the full list of ships logbooks for OWW


Select 'view single page':
When the log book image opens you will see two pages. It is easier to read the details accessing one page at a time. Use the icons at the bottom of the screen:


You can walk through California's log pages in chronological order. All you have to do is increment the number at the end of the link: page/2, page/3, page/4 etc.

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Here is a log page that has been transcribed to help you to be familiar with the writing. This log is a smaller format journal and has a full page of information for most days and the log keeper shares a wealth of information.
September 11th, 1895



292 days Out
Wednesday Sept 11th 1895
Comes in with moderate W winds ship in
Port tack heading into the N under easy
sail broke out Provisions Four sail in
sight stood to the Ice with all sail tacked
then wind hauled to the N heading W.N.W
Strong breeze Middle part same snow
squalls latter part come to the Pack
tacked ship again Furled light sails
+c Pumped ship saw Breech
W~ Joseph

293 days Out
Thursday Sept 12th 1895
Comes in with fresh N winds ship
on Starboard tack heading into the
W.N.W under easy sail Four ships in
sight Came to the pack more ships wind
hauling to the N.W. came to the Ice to the W
tacked again Breezing on quite Fresh
Ice to the N. to the E. to the W. amost sur
rounded latter part wind hauled to
the N. hauled upp courses +c
Ice all over the Ocean this year
Pumps and Light carefully attended too
WF Joseph


Couple of notations here:
The date listed at the top of the page is a month ahead of the actual date and on the top right is says 143 when actually this is page 144 of the digital log. Please see notes in Handwriting Help and Spelling about the idiosyncrasies in this log with dates and page numbers.

Also, you'll see above that he uses 'tc', or '+c', which in this case is being used as an abbreviation for what we know as 'etc.' etcetera. You will see this notation throughout the log.

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Here is a transcription of the above log page. Click on the worksheet images below to see them at full size (click again to reduce it)

Start worksheet (top section)
If you discover any metadata in the logbook please enter it on this page. Metadata means 'data about data'. 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.

Click on the worksheet images below to see them at full size.

Start worksheet


Primary worksheet


Weather worksheet


Remarks worksheet



Notes

• 'Civil Time' is noted, enter this on the START Sheet by 'Notes:'.
• Please see notes on START Sheet regarding crew and injury issues that some may prefer to avoid when transcribing.

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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.

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The remainder of this topic is for you. Ask questions and share interesting discoveries with us to make these logs live.

[ggordon]

reserved

[AvastMH]

For a few months the California has had no luck in catching whales. They've lost irons and ropes and had gales blowing them around. The logkeeper puts their failure to catch whales down to using white boats for chasing. Despite cursing his bad luck he's decide to turn over a new health leaf:

May 16th 1895
'Knocked off chewing Tobacco this day'



Best of luck!

[AvastMH]

After a miserable season of almost zero catches, in fact they were collecting more walrus oil than whale oil, and not a lot at that, the crew get the Blues. The other steamers are lowering to catch whales but there are very few reports of them boiling. They are surrounded by ice. On the day before, 25th Sept 1895 the report states:
'On 25th Sept: some very heavy cakes 12000 to 15000 tons some of them scattered all over the Arctic ocean there is no pack so there will bee no whaling I prophace nothing for sailing ships or steamers'

As much as I hate the whole whaling industry it must have been a terrible prospect to go home empty handed in times when there was little help upon return. :'(

September 26th 1895




[...] came to the E ice ran off to the NW then hauled to wind heading SW took in M.T. Staysail furled upper foretopsail sailmaker off duty sick everybody got the blues I begin to get ugly but will try to do the best we can anyway no whale no dollar that what we are here for plenty of ice to the SW. W. NE but no Whales pumps and lights cared for W F Joseph Bk California

[AvastMH]

Tobacco update....definitely giving up now

Monday October 7th 1895



'gave out our last tobacco today'

I love his flourish at the end. I reckon that, after such a miserable and hopeless trip he was probably thinking of home!

[AvastMH]

And the final, sorry tally for that hopeless trip was as shown below. A tiny sum of oil and bone compared to years like the mid 1880s. Link to log page



The total of oil shown above was noted on the 6th May 1895 which shows just how bad a trip this was. A lot of the summer was spent, apparently, around the seas between Herald Island and Point Barrow.

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Addendum.
I've just finished checking through the log for the Hunter 1893. She's a sail-only whaler and has had a similarly miserable season, but has seen the steam whalers, like California, coming back with holds bumper-full of stocks having been able to over-winter in the Arctic. This illustrates just how damaging those early 1890 seasons where in terms of the low, low populations of whales being reduced to comparatively tiny numbers'
Here's the note from the Hunter log from 16th Sept 1893...
'Employed in doing nothing at all. Saw seven ships and gammed the Bk. Triton and got news from the steamers Who wintered at Herschel Island, and I tell you it was a pill. Over two Hundred Whales, and i don't know how much Bone, and all the steamers have got a good cut, and we poor people cannot get a whale [...]

[AvastMH]

The California on the 23rd August 1895. They are somewhere in the region of Point Lay

'Saw Large number of walruses 10,000 or more'

That's a huge number, although a small amount of research revealed that congregations of up to 30,00 are seen on sea ice. Recently, in 2016, a lack of suitable sea ice drove 10,000 walrus onto beaches. This featured in the news in 2016 when there was too little sea ice for the walrus to feed from. The walrus generally feed up to 250 feet deep to supply their omnivorous diet. The ice formed further away than usual and, consequently, over a much deeper section of sea thus the walrus had to move to beaches.

An aerial picture shows the 10,000 walrus on the beach near Point Lay in 2016.

[AvastMH]

Sometimes the endless days of wandering the Bering gets to you. I noticed the directions noted by California during the middle of June. I'd get dizzy after this lot:
1895....
11 June steering E by N Island of St Paul to the W
11 June steering NE
12 June steering NE
12 June steering W
13 June steering NNW
13 June steering SE
14 June steering NW
14 June steering E
15 June steering E
15 June steering W
15 June steering SE
16 June steering N
17 June steering SSW
Then, suddenly, action! 'two dead Cod, Fish got one but cannot catch them yet' . And if that doesn't make 100% sense at 196 days out and virtually nothing found, it's not that surprising

[AvastMH]

Also posted in 'Extreme comments from logs. Weather, ice, seas'
California 8th August 1895

It's easy to post the worst situations, but this time around it seems that the California needs to get a move one...
'...middle part wind moderating set everything [...] latter part [...] heading N by E Every stitch on her'



and that's a lot of sail