Met Ships

[j.sabourn]

Opened up this thread and expected to see posts. Apparently nothing there, unless was lost some time ago when the site was down for a long time. What I remember of weather observation ships, used to take observations every 4 or 6 hours and were sent in code to a specified Radio Station. The Observations were to my recollect. Air and Sea temperatures. Barometric Pressure. Relative Humidity, Wind force and direction. Sea swell and height, wave direction and height. Period of wave and period of swell. Height of the base of lowest cloud and type, all other cloud types Cirrus Cumulus stratus nimbus etc etc, Also the rise and fall of the barometer during a specified period, this could be read off the barograph. Most tramp ships I was on were designated observer ships so there were many hundreds of ships all over the world sending in reports continuously. Nowadays believe the weather bureaus make up their weather reports from satellite pictures. JS PS Missed out the most important info. which would make all before useless, it was the ships position. Glad I noticed before Ivan. Cheers JS

[Captain Kong]

When I was deep sea with ESSO we sent the weather reports by telex in every six hours, with also any other phenomena's,
eg Locusts, birds , sea creatures etc. these were sent to the Weather Centre in Bracknell Hertfordshire.
Usually the Captain got the present of a Barometer for it. even tho` we did the reporting.
Cheers
Brian

[j.sabourn]

Used to be a Barograph at one time. All the equipment was supplied by the Met Office, sea bucket, Marine Barometer mounted on gimbals, theres a word you don't hear at sea nowadays "gimbals", Stevenson Screen and all the dry and wet thermometers for same. Barograph, code cards and all the necessary equipment necessary. Don't think the shipowner would have volunteered you, if they had to supply. Cheers John S

[Ivan Cloherty]

[QUOTE=j Glad I noticed before Ivan. Cheers JS[/QUOTE]

Oh! Woe! is me, I don't think you forgot anything John! or did we have to send our course as well (just hoping!)

[j.sabourn]

May have had speed as well. Going back 50 years and seems like last week. Used to keep you awake on those long ocean passages. Brian is correct when he says Bracknell , however if sparks couldn't raise used to send via Lands End or any other Radio Station he could contact for forwarding. We never won the Barograph and I never fell asleep either. Cheers JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

Did you ever throw the canvas bucket just astern of the ER cooling water discharge, not guilty m'lud!

[j.sabourn]

I think the met office put out as good weather reports then as they do nowadays with all their instant satellite pictures. In fact in a lot of cases the weather we get here in WA is usually at least 12 hours adrift with their present estimates with all their modern gadgetry. Used to use the sea bucket and temperature seeking to find various currents especially the Gulf Stream. Was a distinct counter current inside going against off Florida if went close enough inshore and could always get a good idea by the sea temperature. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Have to laugh at times on the cruise ships. Each day at noon when at sea the bridge gives out a report to all, position, sea and air temp etc. They also give depth of water and it is quite amazing the response from some of the passengers who do not have a clue as to what it is all about.

[j.sabourn]

#8 Should have read out the log Extract that went into the office in carefully neatly written sheets posted on from the next port. Lat. Long. Course made good, distance made good, average speed, general average speed, total distance steamed, Total Steaming time, total distance steamed, distance to go, General average speed, Estimated adverse or favourable current, Propellor slip, Daily fuel consumption average daily fuel consumption, fuel remaining, then all the weather during the past 24 hours. This was part of a daily Noon report. As second mate were responsible for these reports and always finished up arguing with the chief Engineer about the slip, as he always arrived at least 12 hours ahead of everyone else. Don't know what they wanted to know the depth of water was for unless to advise them they stood every possibility of drowning if decided to jump in. Cheers John S

[Laurie Ridyard]

For all you folks reading this thread.....

Do you know your Weather Log Books were used by the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit ? They went through them all and used them to create their Graphs of GLOBAL Temperatures from 1850, and come to the conclusion that Humans were causing catastrophic global warming, or Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming. ( CAGW)

See Temperature data (HadCRUT4)

I am not kidding you! Read it and have a think about what they have done. It is the biggest load of Cowpatology you have ever read!

Laurie Ridyard.