The following has been taken from the book, How to Research Shipwrecks by Dr. E. Lee
Spence, published by Sea Research Society, © copyright 1993 by Edward Lee Spence.
VESSEL LOGS
ORIGIN OF LOGBOOKS
About the 16th-century, a device known as a log
(consisting of a log chip, log reel, and log glass) was invented to measure the
speed of a ship. Speeds ascertained by using this device were frequently
recorded in a journal known as a logbook. Through the centuries, the logbook
came to serve a much broader purpose, recording important events of voyages as
well as the speed and other performance information concerning ships. The
format of the logbooks of U.S. naval vessels changed somewhat through the
years, but the types of information included remained generally constant and
continued to relate to the ship's performance and location, weather conditions,
personnel (assignments, transfers, desertions, deaths, injuries, and
courts-martial), supplies received, and miscellaneous observations.
PRE-1850 LOGBOOKS
Before 1850, the officers of American naval
vessels did not use standardized forms for logbook entries but wrote daily
entries in paragraph form or in hand-drawn columns, usually listing the hour of
the entry, knots, fathoms, course, winds, and miscellaneous remarks. For the
purpose of logbook entries, the day was calculated according to "sea
time," from noon on one day to noon on the next. Beginning in 1848, the
day was calculated in logbooks according to "civil time," from
midnight to midnight of each calendar day. The remarks section typically
included additional notes concerning the weather, position of the vessel, water
and fuel expended and remaining, sightings of land and of other vessels,
numbers of crew members on the sick list, deaths and burials of crew and
passengers, training exercises, disciplinary actions, and number and kinds of
sails in use at each watch. Because there was no standardization, the amount of
information recorded in logbooks before 1850 varied widely from ship to ship.
Some captains included detailed descriptions of battle engagements, personal
observations, or opinions, thus making the volume more a personal journal than
a logbook. Some captains had logbook forms printed, generally with columns for
knots, fathoms, course, and winds.
STANDARDIZATION OF
LOGBOOKS
In the 1860's, after the Bureau of Navigation
was created, American naval ships began using official printed logbooks. The
Bureau designed the books, issued detailed instructions on their use, required
that they be maintained and forwarded to the Navy Department by all vessels
serving in full, reduced, or reserve commission, and began to collect completed
logbooks. Before this time, there had been no systematic collection of logbooks
by the Navy Department; many captains had destroyed the logbooks at the end of
a voyage or retained them as personal property.
TYPES OF INFORMATION
KEPT
The printed logbook usually consisted of a
title page; a set of directions for keeping the logbook; lists of officers;
lists of the numbers of petty officers, seamen, landsmen, boys, and marines;
observations concerning the local deviation of the ship's compass; log pages
for each day; and occasionally a description of the armament of the ship, and
plans and drawings of the ship. Daily entries were written on two printed
sheets: a columnar page and a page titled "Record of the Miscellaneous
Events of the Day." The columnar page generally contains listings for
knots, fathoms, course, winds, leeway, barometer, temperature, state of the
weather, forms of clouds, state of the sea, record of the sail at the end of
the watch (for 19th-century entries), distance traveled since preceding day,
latitude, longitude, current, variation of the compass, coal and water
consumed, and training exercises. Some of the entries made on the columnar page
were in code. Printed directions in the logbooks list code phrases, numbers, or
letters to describe the force of the winds, state of the weather, appearance of
the clouds, and state of the sea. The page for general remarks typically
contains observations concerning the weather, personnel, supplies, sightings,
course changes, and training exercises. Other types of information, such as
periodic reports of the condition of the ship's ammunition and notations that
orders were received and read to the crew, are sometimes included.
BINDING OF LOGBOOKS
Printed log pages were issued originally in a
bound logbook by the Bureau of Navigation, and the logbook was forwarded to the
Bureau only when it was completely filled. After 1900, log pages were generally
issued unbound, forwarded to the Bureau at the end of each month, and then
bound in aggregates of one year or more. This function was later performed by
the Bureau of Naval Personnel.
TWO PAGE FORMAT
The two-page form for ship's daily logbook
entries has remained standard, except for a few modifications. The columnar
page of information about the ship's performance became increasingly complex in
the 20th-century, and sections were added for hydrographic remarks,
meteorological remarks, and submarines' submerged runs. Specialized forms were
developed for dirigibles, patrol or special craft, and submarines. The special
columnar page developed for dirigibles includes columns for altitude, air
temperature, relative humidity, percentage of "fullness," visibility,
and weight. The simplified form used for patrol craft consists of one page with
a remarks section at the bottom and columns for the basic weather and course
statistics. Before and during World War I, submarines used a special log form
consisting of two pages of columns and a remarks section at the bottom of each
page. The columns were used for detailed information on each engine, batteries,
air pressure, torpedo practice, and submerged runs. In about 1920, most
submarines began using the standard two-page log form used by all vessels, and
the form was modified to include a section for reports of submerged runs.
SHORE STATIONS
Officers stationed at shore installations and
with miscellaneous units other than ships using log forms frequently filled in
only the remarks page or filled in both the remarks page and the weather
section of the columnar page. In the remarks section, officers at shore
stations listed such things as personnel assignments, transfers, and
disciplinary actions; training exercises; supplies received; and weather
conditions.
NAVAL AIR STATIONS
A special columnar page developed for naval air
stations includes sections for pilot balloon, kite balloon, and airstrip
flights; aerological phenomena; and a "pigeon report." The general
remarks page frequently contains notations on the arrival or departure and
destination of planes.
PREPARATION OF LOGBOOK
Various ship officers had responsibility for
the preparation of the logbook. Depending on the size of the ship's complement,
the watch or deck officer made or supervised most of the entries in the log,
noting the ship's performance, weather, supplies received, personnel matters,
accidents, and other miscellaneous happenings and signing his name at the end
of his 4-hour duty. This initial log was called the rough deck log. Each day
the navigator examined the rough log for the preceding day, entered such
additional information as the course and distance traveled by the end of the
day, the amount of coal or oil and water expended, the ship's position, and
variation of the compass, and then had the rough log neatly copied or typed
into what was known as the smooth log. The watch officer and navigator signed
the daily smooth log entries, and the captain approved and signed them at the
end of each month. The captain was also responsible for seeing that training
exercises, disciplinary actions, and deaths were properly recorded in the log;
the ship's ordnance officer was responsible for inspecting the magazine and
having his inspection recorded in the log.
OTHER LOGS AND RECORDS
In addition to the logbooks described above,
Navy ships in the 20th-century kept logs of signals, radio transmissions, and
correspondence sent and received. Signal, radio, and communications logs as
well as bound volumes of muster rolls of U.S. Navy ships are among the records
of the Bureau of Naval Personnel. The Naval Records Collection of the Office of
Naval Records and Library, National Archives Record Group 45, includes ships'
muster rolls and payrolls as well as a large collection of war diaries,
journals, and a few logbooks of Navy ships.
SPECIAL LIST 44
Published by National Archives
Special lists are published by the National
Archives and Records Service (NARS) as a part of its records description
program. Special lists describe in detail the contents of certain important
records series; that is, units of records of the same form or that deal with
the same subject or activity or that are arranged serially. The list that deals
with United States Navy logbooks was compiled in 1978 and is titled List of Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships,
Stations, and Miscellaneous Units, 1801-1947, and is designated as
"Special List 44.". It was compiled by Claudia Bradley, Michael
Kurtz, Rebecca Livingston, Timothy Mulligan, Muriel Parseghian, Paul
Vanderveer, and James Yale. It was edited by Alice Russell and Annis K. Olsen.
73,000 Logbooks
Approximately 73,000 logbooks of U.S. Navy
ships, stations, and miscellaneous units covering the period from 1801 to 1947,
are described in "Special List 44." Each entry includes the name of a
vessel or shore establishment, the date span covered by the logbooks for that
vessel or station, and the number of logbooks. The list is divided into three
parts: logbooks of vessels known primarily by nominal designations (Constitution, Kearsarge, etc.); logbooks of vessels, mostly World War II special
craft, known primarily by symbol and number designations (AMC-65, PT-109, etc.);
and logbooks of a small number of 20th-century shore stations and miscellaneous
units, including naval stations inside and outside of the continental United
States, naval air stations, training schools, receiving stations, submarine
bases, barracks, and lighthouse stations. The volumes are part of Records of
the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24.
Dates Spanned
All gaps of one month or more in the date span
of the logbooks are indicated in "Special List 44." Shown in
parentheses after the name of the vessel or station are any other identifying
names or symbols that also appeared in the logbooks. Occasionally, log pages
for one vessel were bound with log pages of another vessel by the Bureau of
Navigation or the Bureau of Naval Personnel. In these cases, cross-references
(in parentheses) indicate the date span of the pages bound with another
vessel's logbook, the name of the other vessel, and the year of the pertinent
volume. Most of the vessels and stations listed were part of the U.S. Navy;
however, logs of one British vessel, H.M.S. Thomas
Tucker, and two German ships, S.M.S. Prinz
Waldemar and S.M.S. Prinz Sigismund,
are included in the list.
Appendices
Appendix I, of "Special List 44,"
lists the descriptions of the standard Navy symbols for the various types of
ships. Appendix II, of "Special List 44," gives summary instructions
from "Directions for Keeping the Ship's Log," published by the Bureau
of Navigation in 1866.
