The Royal Navy as Weather Observers
Sailors have been deeply concerned with the weather since ancient times: wind speed and direction, and estimates of ocean currents, were critical information for keeping track of the ship’s position. The Royal Navy records in the National Archives and the National Maritime Museum go back into the 17th century, and even the earliest logbooks contain descriptions of the weather of each day.
Most of the early records give only wind force and direction, but even in the eighteenth century some ships carried weather instruments (thermometer and barometer), and this became standard practice in the nineteenth century. Since then, every navy ship has recorded precise temperatures and pressures as a matter of routine, and this practice continues to today. This combination of obsession with the weather, a large number of ships supporting British interests all over the world, and exemplary record keeping and preservation, mean that the hundreds of thousands of historic naval logs which have survived to the present day have enormous potential to provide new information on how the weather changes and varies.
Old Weather is about turning that potential information into actual information. Paper records are great for long-term preservation, but for analysis and understanding we need computer-readable versions. Also, to find the interesting features and changes in the weather, the records need to be looked at by scientists. A lot of records requires a lot of scientists, and the large community of citizen scientists forming the Zooniverse could make a big difference.
[The above image is from the log of the Raven, for January 12 and 13, 1832]