[1] As will already have become apparent, during much of the cruise the conditions were marginal for conducting hydrographic water bottle and TSD casts. John Swallow insisted that the Discovery remain in the work area so that we could take advantage of any temporary lull in the wind. In contrast the Jean Charcot would run in to the shelter of the land. I remember that on at least one occasion they called to us on the radio to come and join them, they were “having a party”!
[2] we went up to the Bridge to tell them we’d finished on the foredeck and the officer of the watch had an amused, sly expression. I suspect he had altered course slightly or nudged the engines ahead to get a wave to break over the bow.
[3] the Assman psychrometer has wet and dry bulb thermometers aspirated by a clockwork driven fan.
[4] presumably the Third Mate who would have been responsible for medical care on board.
The only other time I got “injured” onboard was when I cut my finger on paper tape in the computer room. The IBM 1800 computer on Discovery was probably unique in having a paper tape based operating system because it was feared that a deck of computer cards might get dropped. My injury was ironic because previously I’d been helping on the aft deck, a far more dangerous location.
[5] During most of the cruise my job was to attach and detach the hydrographic bottles from the wire, read the reversing thermometers, and draw the water samples. These were activities in the apply named “Wet Lab”. In contrast the output from the TSD probe was recorded on chart recorders in the Electronics Lab. It was before the advent of digital recording and someone was sat in front of the chart recorders annotating the traces so that they could be correctly interpreted when they were later digitised by hand.
[6] a Sunday tradition was “Small eats” in the bar. These were accompanied by gin and tonics. Being completely duty free, spirits were very cheap on the ship, the tonic was more expensive so used sparingly. If the scientific work allowed it was not unusual for “Small Eats” to continue past lunch time, the formal meal being skipped. The established sea-goers would start playing Liar Dice, a game I never learnt to play. By Sunday evening we could be well inebriated – this all changed in later years when alcohol consumption on ships was much more tightly limited by regulations.
[7] despite experiencing Atlantic storms on various cruises, the two occasions when Discovery sustained damage while I was on board were both in the Mediterranean. In high winds the short, fetch limited seas don’t allow the ship to ride over them as she would in an Atlantic storm. The Gulf of Lion is notorious for storms, indeed the name may be derived from it being “as dangerous as a lion” (
Wikipedia).
We continue working in the Gulf of Lion; TSD casts when the wind allows, hove-to when it is too strong…
Hove to while waiting for slightly less wind.
Sunday (15th Feb): Wind very strong – Charcot [has] run for shelter 1 not us. Filming waves got soaked in bows with Alan [Elliot from Liverpool with whom I shared the cabin] and Big John 2 not by chance?. True Mistral. Spent much of day resting!
Monday (16 Feb): Coast of Spain visible. Sunny sunbathing. Did Assman [psychrometer] comparisons 3 Assman . Ship doing stations after tea – pinger came up full of water with crystal crushed.
Tuesday (17 Feb): On watch all day – calm, little of note.
My traced chart of TSD stations during the second cruise leg
Wednesday (18 Feb): During night watch trapped my finger in Hydro lab/plot door when it blew to. Duly noted in ship’s log, had it bandaged by Mark 4 first aid. Too rough to work in evening and we could see the film “Strange Bedfellows” which was lousy.
Thursday (19 Feb): On watch during the day and put on chart recorders to keep my finger dry 5 TSD charts.
Friday (20 Feb): Beautiful day for sunbathing but interrupted by having to take over at lunch and by boat drill. Still quite rough but working all the time.
Saturday (21 Feb): On watch till 1600 when film “The Mindbenders” which was quite good. Woken at 2400Z, too rough for stations but TSD records to be worked up – all night!
Strong winds around the ship’s hull
Sunday (22 Feb): Off watch for Small Eats 6 liar dice – we all wore our Monaco Badges. Weather still rough – since Toulon the average wind speed has been 33 knots. The weather seems to improve for our watch to do stations though.
Monday (23 Feb): We are still doing stations when possible but we’ve also started trying to plot the area by the variation in the sea surface temperature. We are now pretty [well] up to date with the data.
Tuesday (24 Feb): Stations from midnight with long steams between. By dawn 50 knot wind which persisted all day. In evening the ship was rolling greatly – we lost the evening sweet on the galley floor. Waves dented the shelter deck rails by the Officer’s mess 7 rough Med. Aft Hydro lab flooded. Steaming for Gibraltar from 2100Z.
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