Meteorologist required

[michaeldr]

Some guidance from a meteorologist required here

Looking at a particular day and the weather as reported in a ship's log

 

04:00 hrs wind direction 'South' – force '5 to 6' – barometer 29.95

08:00 hrs wind direction 'SSW' – force '5 to 6' – barometer 30.02

12:00 hrs wind direction 'SSW' – force '5 to 6' – barometer 30.13

side note 15:15 hrs “wind veered to NE b N in the space of 5 minutes”

16:00 hrs wind direction 'NE' – force '7' – barometer 30.21

20:00 hrs wind direction 'NE b E' – force '6' – barometer 30.26

 

In layman's terms, what happened to the weather that day? What sort of weather system passed through where this ship was anchored?

 

Thanks for your interest and any help here

Michael

Edited 23 August , 2018 by michaeldr

[DavidOwen]

Hi Michael

I am certainly no meterologist or even armchair expert (although I do have a weather station!).

Whilst I am quite prepared to be told I'm wrong it would appear to me that a cold front passed over the vessel that day (providing it was in the Northern Hemisphere).

Indicative of overall improving weather as the barometer was rising and the wind speed being "fresh to strong breeze" rising to "near gale" before falling back.

This site helped me try to answer your question......  http://bananawind.us/Wind_&_Weather.htm it is in fairly simple language.

Pity they didn't record rainfall or visibility?

Hope that might have helped (or not confused too much!)

Regards

David

 

(sits waiting to be told......)

[daggers]

Surely a call for the former Grumpy?

[ss002d6252]

23 minutes ago, daggers said:

Surely a call for the former Grumpy?

I knew someone was from a weather related background but couldn't remember who it was. @Muerrisch

[gordon92]

2 hours ago, DavidOwen said:

Hi Michael

I am certainly no meterologist or even armchair expert (although I do have a weather station!).

Whilst I am quite prepared to be told I'm wrong it would appear to me that a cold front passed over the vessel that day (providing it was in the Northern Hemisphere).

Indicative of overall improving weather as the barometer was rising and the wind speed being "fresh to strong breeze" rising to "near gale" before falling back.

This site helped me try to answer your question......  http://bananawind.us/Wind_&_Weather.htm it is in fairly simple language.

Pity they didn't record rainfall or visibility?

Hope that might have helped (or not confused too much!)

Regards

David

 

(sits waiting to be told......)

As a former meteorologist, I feel qualified to say that this interpretation is entirely correct....a frontal passage.  Another way of looking at it that the winds from the SSW represented the eastern side of a cyclonic flow in the warm sector, and the shift to winds from the NE indicated that the low pressure center had moved to the east situating the ship on the western side of the cyclonic flow bringing colder air into the vicinity..

[DavidOwen]

4 minutes ago, gordon92 said:

As a former meteorologist, I feel qualified to say that this interpretation is entirely correct....a frontal passage.  Another way of looking at it that the winds from the SSW represented the eastern side of a cyclonic flow in the warm sector, and the shift to winds from the NE indicated that the low pressure center had moved to the east situating the ship on the western side of the cyclonic flow bringing colder air into the vicinity..

You just made my day!

Thank you.

David

[gordon92]

6 minutes ago, DavidOwen said:

You just made my day!

Thank you.

David

Glad I could do that.

Mike

[michaeldr]

17 hours ago, DavidOwen said:

cold front passed over the vessel that day (providing it was in the Northern Hemisphere).

 

Gentlemen, thank you for your helpful replies

Yes it was in the northern hemisphere; my apologies for not providing that vital information in the question

 

The day's weather given in the opening post was provided by HMS Ark Royal which was anchored at the island of Tenedos in the Aegean

The incidents which I am interested in occurred possibly a few hours earlier and a little to the north of Tenedos

I have to continue looking at other logs of ships in the area for more details, but at the moment I am supposing that this 'cold front' was moving down the Aegean from the north.

Is this a fair assumption, given what I have at the moment?

 

HMS Doris and another ship were escorting six old torpedo boats (eg; built 1886, 125ft., 87 tons) from Egypt to Mudros Harbour, on the island of Lemnos, when they ran into this storm. At 00:30 hrs on the 21st March 1915, HMS Albion "Closed torpedo boat who reported steering gear carried away." and at 03:30 saw "HMS Renard passed towing TB 070."

 

Another of the TBs was not so lucky. "She was found off the east coast of the island (Lemnos), at anchor, with hardly any remaining coal and in no condition to proceed. Night of 21st - anchors dragged, drifted ashore and wrecked E side of Lemnos island; no lives lost, crew saved after a stoker swam ashore with a line"

I'm wondering if the captain of the TB, Chief Gunner James Cottrell, headed for the island's inshore waters and tried to find some shelter from the gale, only to be taken by surprise when the wind direction changed so dramatically, and found his craft was driven onto the shore and wrecked?

 

The wind and sea must have been substantial as even the much larger (366ft & 7080 tons) Ark Royal had to change her anchorage, moving at 16:45 hrs, round to the south side of Tenedos to gain some shelter.

 

regards

Michael

[DavidOwen]

Good morning Michael

 

I suspect Mike will need to definitively answer your question re the North to South progression of the weather concerned, although if the vessel whose log is quoted was to the south of the incidents you are interested in and those incidents occurred earlier than the first log entry then I suppose that would be a reasonable conclusion.

 

 TBH I hadn't recognised the weather from the log as a storm but on reflection I am thinking that would have been because the data provided was from a protected anchorage? It would clearly have been much worse in open water. The fact Ark Royal moved after the wind force in the anchorage increased to 7 and changed direction is indicative of the Captain's concern for his vessel as to proceed into open water would have exposed the ship to worse weather temporarily until a safer anchorage could be reached.

 

A very interesting bit of research, thank you for sharing.

 

Regards

 

David

[michaeldr]

22 minutes ago, DavidOwen said:

I hadn't recognised the weather from the log as a storm but on reflection I am thinking that would have been because the data provided was from a protected anchorage? It would clearly have been much worse in open water. The fact Ark Royal moved after the wind force in the anchorage increased to 7 and changed direction is indicative of the Captain's concern for his vessel as to proceed into open water would have exposed the ship to worse weather temporarily until a safer anchorage could be reached.

 

Thank you David

Your thoughts confirm to me that I must indeed continue looking at other logs for this date

Thanks again

Michael

Edited 24 August , 2018 by michaeldr

[horatio2]

36 minutes ago, DavidOwen said:

TBH I hadn't recognised the weather from the log as a storm but on reflection I am thinking that would have been because the data provided was from a protected anchorage? It would clearly have been much worse in open water. The fact Ark Royal moved after the wind force in the anchorage increased to 7 and changed direction is indicative of the Captain's concern for his vessel as to proceed into open water would have exposed the ship to worse weather temporarily until a safer anchorage could be reached.

An observation. A ship the size of ARK ROYAL would have no difficulty coping with a gale in open water. However, Tenedos did not offer "a protected anchorage" (compared with Mudros, for example). ARK's initial anchorage was fine with the SW winds.The problem for her captain was that he very suddenly found himself at anchor in a gale off a lee shore. I don't think the met observations in ARK would have been significantly different from those encountered off the east coat of Lemnos where the TB found herself at anchor off a lee shore but with the big difference that she had no means of shifting anchorage (no fuel).

[DavidOwen]

11 minutes ago, horatio2 said:

An observation. A ship the size of ARK ROYAL would have no difficulty coping with a gale in open water. However, Tenedos did not offer "a protected anchorage" (compared with Mudros, for example). ARK's initial anchorage was fine with the SW winds.The problem for her captain was that he very suddenly found himself at anchor in a gale off a lee shore. I don't think the met observations in ARK would have been significantly different from those encountered off the east coat of Lemnos where the TB found herself at anchor off a lee shore but with the big difference that she had no means of shifting anchorage (no fuel).

Thanks for the clarification.

[michaeldr]

1 hour ago, DavidOwen said:

Thanks for the clarification.

 

Seconded.

Many thanks H2

[gordon92]

12 hours ago, michaeldr said:

I have to continue looking at other logs of ships in the area for more details, but at the moment I am supposing that this 'cold front' was moving down the Aegean from the north.

Is this a fair assumption, given what I have at the moment?

This is entirely plausible especially for the 21st of March.  During the summer a cold front moving that far south would be a less frequent occurrence.

[michaeldr]

 

9 hours ago, gordon92 said:

This is entirely plausible especially for the 21st of March.  During the summer a cold front moving that far south would be a less frequent occurrence.

Mike,

Many thanks for that 

 

[gmac101]

If you have map or chart of the area you can use a diagram like this http://www.northisles-weather.co.uk/weather/waves.html to estimate the wave height they would be experiencing.  If the wind changed direction any ship captain who was then effectively close to a lee shore would wish to change his position as any loss of anchor holding capacity could quickly result in his vessel ending up on the shore. 

 

 

[michaeldr]

Thanks gmac; I'll give that a go

 

Meanwhile (and just to complete the picture)  looking through the various logs available via the Naval History Net:

 

HMS Doris with 4 (of the 6) TBs reached Mudros Harbour at 18:10 on the 20th March, at which point HMS Phaeton escorted them into the harbour

(Doris then went off to try and locate the two missing TBs)

 

TB.070, which was seen being towed by Renard at 03:30 hrs (21st March) off the mouth of the Dardanelles

reached the anchorage at Tenedos at 07:20/07:30

When the wind suddenly changed direction and increased in force, the smaller ships at the anchorage began to get into difficulties

HMS Ribble noted that "Trawler 288 fouled on swinging"

TB.070 also began to suffer and HMS Usk went to her assistance (16:40 hrs)

By 17:00, TB.070 needed a hawser passed from Usk, and by 18:45 the destroyer had the torpedo boat in tow.

It took only an hour for them to reach their new, more sheltered, anchorage

but presumably as a safety precaution while the storm lasted, the TB remained connected by hawser to the Usk until 11:15 hrs the next day (22nd March 1915)

 

[michaeldr]

On 24/08/2018 at 12:14, michaeldr said:

crew saved after a stoker swam ashore with a line

 

My thanks to H2 who informs

Stoker (or Fireman) Angelo Muscat, Maltese RNR survived the war and was able to claim his 1914-15 trio

[michaeldr]

Thinking (or dreaming) of a trip to Malta has reminded me of this old thread and Stoker Angelo Muscat, Malta RNR, who's action swimming ashore with a line during the storm, saved the lives of the crew of T.B.064.

I now see that Stoker Muscat was awarded the Royal Humane Society's Silver Medal in 1915 -  
It seems almost certain that the award was made in respect of this action of March that year; 
can this be checked and will there be a citation recorded somewhere?

Thanks in advance, Michael

[DavidOwen]

Indeed it was for that action. Taken from Daily News (London) 11 June 1915 (Courtesy FMP)

(PS Please acknowledge image sources)

[michaeldr]

Well Done! Many thanks David

[michaeldr]

See also 

'Acts of Gallantry – Volume 2' by W. H. Fevyer, 1996
Being a detailed account of deeds of bravery in saving life, 1871-1950
for which the Royal Humane Society awarded the Silver Medal … …  page 133

Muscat, Angelo, Stoker, Malta R.N.R.                                        Case 41541

On the 21st March, 1915, one of H.M. Torpedo Boats had been driven ashore on the island of Lemnos by a fierce gale. Between 6 and 7p.m., the wind being of hurricane force and the boat on a lee shore about 200 yards from land, a volunteer was asked for to take a line ashore. Angelo Muscat, stoker, Malta R.N.R., at once volunteered, and nothing lighter being available he made fast the end of a two and a half inch grass line to his life-belt and went overboard with it. Although known as a powerful swimmer he had a desperate struggle in reaching the shore, owing to the weight of the line he was towing. This line was the means of saving the lives of three of the crew.

 

[michaeldr]

Fifty years ago I did some climbing in the UK and in the Alps. In those days we used a rope of c.10mm.

I cannot imagine the weight of a 64mm rope that is  over 200m in length and also waterlogged. Stoker Muscat must have been not only very brave but also incredibly strong and a fantastic swimmer.