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Royal Navy logbooks as secondary sources and their use in climatic investigations: Introducing the log-board
International Journal of Climatology
Abstract
This investigation encompasses the first presentation of the log-board, which was the primary source used to compile logbooks on board Royal Navy vessels in the 18th century. All wind force and weather descriptions during the day were entered on the log-board before they were transcribed to the logbook, which is why the logbook should be approached as a secondary source. This study shows that although Royal Navy logbooks represent valuable compilations of what was written on the log-board, it cannot be ascertained exactly how the logbooks were compiled. Seven logbooks from the Cumberland for August 1782 were evaluated by comparing them to the log-board from the same vessel, and the purpose was to determine the validity of logbook wind and weather entries. The results show that wind direction was most consistently transcribed according to the log-board and, furthermore, that a majority of the wind force entries derived from the 1 p.m. entry on the log-board. The kappa statistic shows that both wind force and weather conditions were most consistently copied from the 1 p.m. entry on the log-board. The study concludes that the first wind force and weather entries in the logbooks were not made at noon when the vessel was positioned. While the positioning of the vessel was made at the end of the nautical day, the first wind force and weather entries most likely describe the conditions 23 h earlier.
... Ships did not sail in sufficient numbers prior to the 18th and 19th centuries for scholars to use surviving logbooks for comprehensive regional weather reconstructions, and many logbooks have been lost. Finally, logbooks written aboard some ships copied wind measurements earlier recorded in simple tables and should therefore be considered secondary sources for the purpose of climate reconstruction (Norrgård, 2017). ...
Narrative evidence contained within historical documents and inscriptions provides an important record of climate variability for periods prior to the onset of systematic meteorological data collection. A common approach used by historical climatologists to convert such qualitative information into continuous quantitative proxy data is through the generation of ordinal-scale climate indices. There is, however, considerable variability in the types of phenomena reconstructed using an index approach and the practice of index development in different parts of the world. This review, written by members of the PAGES (Past Global Changes) CRIAS working group – a collective of climate historians and historical climatologists researching Climate Reconstructions and Impacts from the Archives of Societies – provides the first global synthesis of the use of the index approach in climate reconstruction. We begin by summarising the range of studies that have used indices for climate reconstruction across six continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Australia) as well as the world's oceans. We then outline the different methods by which indices are developed in each of these regions, including a discussion of the processes adopted to verify and calibrate index series, and the measures used to express confidence and uncertainty. We conclude with a series of recommendations to guide the development of future index-based climate reconstructions to maximise their effectiveness for use by climate modellers and in multiproxy climate reconstructions.
... Ships did not sail in sufficient numbers prior to the 18th and 19th centuries for 549 scholars to use surviving logbooks for comprehensive regional weather reconstructions, and, indeed, many logbooks have 550 been lost. Finally, logbooks written aboard British naval ships copied most wind measurements earlier recorded in simple 551 tables (called log-boards) and should therefore be considered secondary sources for the purpose of climate reconstruction 552 (Norrgård, 2017). ...
Evidence contained within historical documents and inscriptions provides an important record of climate variability for periods prior to the onset of systematic meteorological data collection. A common approach used by historical climatologists to convert such qualitative documentary evidence into continuous quantitative proxy data is through the generation of ordinal-scale climate indices. There is, however, considerable variability in the types of phenomena reconstructed using an index approach and the practice of index development in different parts of the world. This review, written by members of the PAGES CRIAS Working Group – a collective of climate historians and historical climatologists researching Climate Reconstructions and Impacts from the Archives of Societies – provides the first global synthesis of the use of the index approach in climate reconstruction. We begin by summarising the range of studies that have used indices for climate reconstruction across six continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia) plus the world's oceans. We then outline the different methods by which indices are developed in each of these regions, including a discussion of the processes adopted to verify and calibrate index series, and the measures used to express confidence and uncertainty. We conclude with a series of recommendations to guide the development of future index-based climate reconstructions to maximise their effectiveness for use by climate modellers and in multiproxy climate reconstructions.
Historical climatology is the use of documentary evidence for the reconstruction of past climate. This paper gives a brief
personal view of the development of the discipline from early times to the present day. Although several papers have been
published on the importance of carefully analysing and evaluating all historical sources before they are used in climate reconstructions,
several of them in Climatic Change, the use of unreliable, unanalysed data still persists. This may lead to false impressions of the climate of the past. In
these times, when climate data are being used for political, as well as purely scientific ends, the cause of accuracy, as
championed by Climatic Change, will best be served by emphasising, yet again, the importance of using only reliable data. A number of examples are given
which illustrate these points. These include discussions on wine growing in England in medieval times, the Norse settlement
of Greenland, and comments on the climate history of the past thousand years.
Some of its edifices have been built on the sand, and these time will destroy; yet the same materials may again be used, which,
when reared on a rocky foundation, shall stand the test of time (Lowe 1870, p. 8, writing on meteorology).
The logbooks of the British Royal Navy and of the Hudson's Bay and Honourable East India Companies from the 18th and 19th
centuries represent the largest accumulation of such items in the world. They were prepared to a largely standard format using
a consistent vocabulary and include observations of wind force, wind direction and general descriptions of the weather of
each day. These weather terms are analysed to provide an understanding of the evolution of nautical expressions from those
distant times and to provide a means by which they can be expressed in present day terms. This is particularly important for
estimates of wind force. These are examined and methods developed by which they can be converted from the original text into
Beaufort Scale equivalent terms, providing thereby the opportunity of undertaking scientific analyses of these important historical
data.
This paper is concerned with the use of Royal Navy ships’ logbooks for the period 1685 to 1750, thereby embracing the oldest
members of this documentary series that extends to the present day. The geographic range of the undertaking is confined to
the English Channel and its western approaches where the abundance of logbooks for this period allows for the abstraction
of a daily series of wind force and direction data. These are verified and processed for inclusion in a database from which
indices are derived for air circulation patterns based on the frequency of winds from north, east, south and west quarters,
and of gale frequency, based on the contemporary terminology of wind force. The methods by which the data are abstracted and
processed are described, as is the nature of the raw data and source material. The results provide a uniquely detailed insight
into the changing patterns of air circulation over this critical period that marked the transition from the depths of the
Little Ice Age in the late seventeenth century. Attention is also drawn to the changing nature of gale frequency, which revealed
a notable decrease over the study period. Associations between changing circulation patterns and temperature regimes are also
explored.
Meteorological observations made on board ships prior to 1854 have until now been overlooked in climatological research largely
as a result of the lack of rigorous abstraction and treatment criteria. However, the CLIWOC project has shown that millions
of potentially valuable observations have been preserved throughout Europe in the many logbooks that were prepared by officers
in the navies of the great powers. Moreover these data can be used and treated in a fashion similar to today's ship-based
instrumental observations. The most significant logbook collections are from Spain, the UK, the Netherlands and France. This
paper describes the main archives where the logbooks can be found and provides an account of their contents and of the manner
in which they were set out. The potential of this source is emphasised by the fact that whilst the CLIWOC project abstracted
data for 300,000 days, nearly 90% of the European logbook collections have yet to be examined. This paper concludes with a
discussion as to the direction of future studies in this important field.
Officer recruits - ‘young gentlemen’ - entered the Royal Navy with dreams of fame, fortune and glory, but many found promotion difficult, with a large number unable to progress beyond lieutenant. Recent scholarship has argued that during the wars of 1793-1815 there was greater social diversity among naval officers, with promotion increasingly related to professional competence. This book, based on extensive original research, examines the social background of around 4,000 “young gentlemen” a term which includes midshipmen and various other categories, including captains’ servants, volunteers and masters’ mates. It concludes that in fact high birth became an increasingly important factor in the selection of officer candidates, and that as the Admiralty grip on the appointment and management of officer aspirants increased, especially after 1815, aristocratic presence in the ranks of young officers increased significantly as a result of deliberate Admiralty policy. The book also discusses the assertion that the increase in elite sons led to a dramatic increase in cases of indiscipline and insubordination, concluding that although there was a marked increase in courts martial for insubordination during and after the French Wars there is no evidence that such cases related more to the elites than to young aspirants in general. The book includes many case study examples of midshipmen and other ‘young gentlemen’, illustrating what life was like for them and how they themselves viewed their situation.
Logbooks have survived in large numbers and contain notable quantities of climatological information. This paper examines
the degree to which these data are reliable and consistently recorded. This is done by comparing the daily observations entered
in the logbooks of vessels sailing in convoy, at which times the respective ships' officers would independently estimate and
record the prevailing wind force and wind direction. The results are described using a variety of descriptive summary statistics.
In general, wind force records are highly correlated and wind direction differences are relatively small compared with the
natural variability of this phenomenon. Wind directions were studied and found to have a bias towards 4-, 8- and 16-point
compass readings at the expense of 32-point readings. Corrections were needed to convert the recorded directions, which were
made by reference to magnetic north, to their true north equivalents.
Research into the climate of the Middle Ages has relied heavily upon data provided by compilations of references to weather and related phenomena extracted from a variety of historical texts and source documents. These compilations, produced from 1858 onwards, have generally neglected the essential need for source validation. While a considerable amount of reliable and useful information about medieval climate is to be found in documentary sources, it occurs together with material which is spurious, inaccurate, or whose reliability cannot be properly authenticated. Because they were, for the most part, scientists, unfamiliar with historical methodology and techniques of source analysis, the authors of the compilations were either unaware of the problematic character of their sources, or ignorant of the techniques developed by historians for dealing with them. The material included in the compilations must be regarded as suspect until its authenticity has been checked by validating individual sources. Unless this is done, a misleading picture of the climate of the Middle Ages may emerge from uncritical use of the compilations. In particular, the climate may appear to have been more extreme than authentic sources alone would suggest.
Several thousand ships' logbooks havesurvived from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.They provide a valuable source of climaticinformation. This paper takes the Battle of Trafalgaras an example of how this source can be used toprovide a better knowledge and understanding ofweather and climate from those distant times. Thereliability of the non-instrumental climatic recordsof the logbooks is confirmed and a simple statisticalmeasure is used to quantify their degree ofconsistency. Reconstructions of daily weather patternsare made and a zonal index is calculated to representthe circulation patterns of the region. The movementsof pressure systems are plotted and indicate that thezonal index was negative (air pressure increasing fromsouth to north) for most of the month. The storm thatfollowed the battle is identified as one of notableseverity. This extreme behaviour is interpreted withinthe context of longer-term aspects of the contemporaryclimate.
The Kappa statistic is presented as an objective tool for comparing global vegetation maps. Such maps can result from either compilations of observed spatial patterns or from simulations from models that are global in scope. The method is illustrated by comparing global maps resulting from applying a modified Holdridge Life Zone Classification to current climate and several climate change scenarios (CO2 doubling). These scenarios were based on the results of several different general circulation models (GCMs). The direction of change in simulated vegetation patterns between different GCMs was found to be quite similar for all future projections. Although there were differences in magnitude and extent, all simulations indicate potential for enormous ecological change. The Kappa statistic proved to be a useful and straightforward measure of agreement between the different global vegetation maps. Furthermore, Kappa statistics for individual vegetation zones clearly indicated differences and similarities between those maps. The Kappa statistic was found to be most useful for rank ordering of agreement, both across a series of maps and across the various vegetation zones within a map.
This paper presents a general statistical methodology for the analysis of multivariate categorical data arising from observer reliability studies. The procedure essentially involves the construction of functions of the observed proportions which are directed at the extent to which the observers agree among themselves and the construction of test statistics for hypotheses involving these functions. Tests for interobserver bias are presented in terms of first-order marginal homogeneity and measures of interobserver agreement are developed as generalized kappa-type statistics. These procedures are illustrated with a clinical diagnosis example from the epidemiological literature.
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