Transcribing

I spent an hour and a half on 11/16/17 and another hour and a half on 11/17/17 transcribing. It was challenging at some points to decipher some of the text, and unfortunately there was a few I had to pass on as illegible, since I was unable to make sense of the old writing. Below are multiple examples of what would come up from markings of interest by other individuals that I have transcribed. I also inserted some entries I found quite interesting in the process of interpreting the old whaling logs.

A common marking for transcription was for weather descriptions, including this one regarding wind direction and force. It says: Light wind from the S.W. (South west).

In this other example of a transcription it asks for the date, which is: October 7th 1890.

Here it asked to transcribe the marking of a section that describes a ship boring, warping, tracking, or ramming in close pack ice. It reads: Westward the ice slacked and worked a mile or two to the eastward.

Another example of a transcription for wind intensity and direction. It reads: Latter part wind from the North, fine weather.

 This entry I transcribed was a morbid one: Died on board at five a.m. Peter Songar A native of Rota, one of the Mariana Islands, after two month sickness. Supposed to be the dropsy. Buried him at 7:30 a.m.

Doing a little research, the Marianna Islands are near the Philippines, which means Mr. Songar must have traveled a far distance to join aboard a whaling vessel. Also the sickness dropsy they believe he died from is an old term for edema, defined as the swelling of soft tissue from excess water retention. He may have died from congestive heart failure as a result of the edema.

Here above is an interesting series of transcribed entries from the 1890 voyage journal:

Wednesday May 20th

This day fore port fast to the ice. employed cutting at 9:30 p.m. Sent all hands below and at 3:30 a.m. called all hand and went to cutting again

Thursday May 21st

This day light wind from the S.E. (South East). Finished cutting, saw several bow heads in the ice mid port. Employed clearing away the heads. Latter part. Employed in boiling.

Friday May 22nd 

This day blowing strong from the S.E., fast to the ice and boiling mid (boiling blubber mid day to make oil) and latter part boiling and stowing oil (later on in the day after the boiling and barreling they would stow the oil).

Saturday May 23rd

This day in the ice, everything furled. Employed boiling and stowing oil mid part. Blowing strong from the N.E. Latter part the same finished boiling.

Sunday May 24th

This day fore port wind. The same, finished stowing down the oil, stowed 128 barrels. Mid and latter part still fast to the ice. Saw two vessels off shore of us in open water.

Monday May 25th

This day still blowing and snowing from the N.E. Took off the rudder chains and put on rope ones. Latter part wind the same with thick fog. 

In this several day span, the crew found themselves stuck amongst the masses of ice, viewing other vessels and whales that were freely moving about in open waters. In the mean time they decided to process their harvests, keeping a detailed record of the events and weather. I thought it was interesting to learn the labor intensive process of making oil, which begins by cutting the fat out after sectioning up the whale, then boiling down the fat reserves to oil, and lastly barreling the fresh oil to be stowed aboard the ship. I also thought it was pretty neat to see that it was still snowing in late May where they were at.