Historic Weather/sea state info?

[Bill R]

Can anyone point me to a source, either online or paper archive. of records for weather and more specifically sea state?

The scenario- SWMBO is working on a research project, ands she needs to find out why a transatlantic liner would have docked in Portland, Maine instead of its original destination of Quebec, Canada in March of 1913. She needs a definate, citable recorded source for weather and specifically sea state (storms, ice, etc) for this time period. Location of the data does not matter- if it happens to reside in an archive somewhere on either side of the border, that is fine- that means I get to go on a road trip.

Can anyone point us in the right direction?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[Bruce Hooke]

Might it be possible to track down log books from other vessels that would have been in the area at the time? You presumably need records at sea rather than shore based records.

Something does seem odd here. Where was the liner coming from? "Transatlantic" would tend to suggest Europe, but the liner would have had to have been a LONG ways off course for Portland to make sense as a destination. Since Portland is pretty much straight beyond the entrance to the St. Lawrence it hardly makes sense to avoid a storm by continuing on to Portland...

[John E Hardiman]

Oceanographer of the Navy and Naval Oceanographic Office will have any and all data if there is any. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard should have been reporting.

You could also try NOAA, go to the NBDC and see if there is a link.

[Ken Hutchins]

It might be a good idea to search the Portland newspapers, ship arrivals were most always newspaper stories, The reason for the diversion would probably written up.
I would guess that ice in the St Lawrence river would be the reason.

[Bill R]

Thank you gentlemen. The origin of the voyage was Hamburg, Germany.

Whereabouts would it be possible to track down vessel logbooks?

I suspect ice as well, but it would be nice to prove it.

Thanks again

[S/V Laura Ellen]

Where in Quebec? If you check the local papers for the planned arrival date you are bound to find some reference to the cause of the ship diverting to another port.

[Bruce Hooke]

Whereabouts would it be possible to track down vessel logbooks?
One place to inquire is with operations like Mystic Seaport and the Maine Maritime Museum. The challange is, of course, going to be finding a ship that was in the area at the right time. It might make sense to try to focus on ships that sailed a regular route, such as other transatlantic liners or coastal passenger steamers, since they would be more likely to be passing through the area on a regular basis.

If you suspect ice was the issue this should be easy enough to confirm by checking newspapers from the time, from ports in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I'm sure it would have been reportable news that the Gulf was closed to shipping by ice. If the Gulf was not totally closed to shipping then it is likely, as S/V Laura Ellen said, that the diversion of this ship would have made it into the papers in the port to which it was originally bound.