In early August 1914, just days after Europe descended into the chaos of World War I, the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Otranto (wiki) set sail from Tilbury Docks, through the Channel, for Sao Vicente in the Cape Verde Islands. After a brief stop, she sailed on to the port of Pernambuco in Brasil. The weather was fine most of the way, apart from some heavy rains just South of Sao Vicente.
How do I know this? Why, I’m the Captain of HMS Otranto. Or at least, I have his logbook.
My inner history geek was delighted today at the launch of the new Zooniverse project I saw a sneak preview of at Science Online London last month. Old Weather is a collaboration between the Zooniverse team at the University of Oxford and the UK Met Office, and forms part of a wider effort to gather historical weather data.
Every 4 hours without fail, the Royal Navy seamen recorded the weather conditions in the ship’s log. These thousands of books are a treasure trove of information about the climate at sea. Volunteers are invited to help digitise this information by transcribing the logs of over 200 Royal Navy vessels.
The ship’s logs also contain records of other noteworthy events at sea – meeting another ship, calling at a port, a sailor failing ill, or more importantly given the era, enemy encounters. Online sailors can also record events like these.
This project is so much fun. The logs looks great, and in just a few hours I’ve become fascinated by everything boat-, history- and WWI-related. As with the other Zooniverse projects, the interface looks neat and fun with excellent visualisations of the data.
The Otranto is about to reach Pernambuco in Brasil. I can’t wait to see where it will go next, and what it will encounter on the way. Come join me Cadets!
Ahoy captain! I’m your lieutenant aboard Otranto! btw, I’d like to put up a ‘Ship Summary’ post in the forum – do you have a link to page 1 of the logbook, with the ship’s stats etc. on it? Would love to see it! Many thanks, and see you aboard.
I see I’ve been mutineered! You’re now MY captain. Yes this is a good idea, I’m not sure how to retrieve the first page. I can see my list of recently transcribed pages, but only go back a few days. I’ll send a tweet!
Update: no I can’t see that page….. The first page I digitised was no different from others, just weather & notes. The wikipedia entry gives lots of stats, but it’s not like seeing it on the logbook of course…
Hi Sarah.
I am researching a crew member of HMS Otranto who died onboard her on 26th March 1918. At that time they were somewhere near Sydney as she had a refit there around April 1918, before returning to the UK in June 1918.
Able Seaman Sidney George Ludlow Official No 213177 died on 26th March 1918.
I am a volunteer at Chatham Dockyard Historic Society and write up a brief history from Service Certificates for people who want to know where their relatives served and what they done on different ships.
I have found a lot of false information, like he is buried at Chatham War Memorial Grave Ref 28. So untrue as the memorial only records men lost at sea and the 28 denotes the panel his name is printed on. I would think he died from an illness and was buried at sea by the Captain.
If you can throw any light on this tragedy I would be very grateful.
John Keeliling
John,
That’s a fascinating story, and I’d love to help. As a user I don’t have full access to the Old Weather dataset. But I’ll pass your message on to the team to see if they can provide more info. Can you email me so I can give them your details?