The First Fleet (1787-8)¶
The First Fleet sailed from England in 1787 to found a penal colony in Australia. One of the officers of the fleet, William Bradley, on HMS Sirius, took regular weather observations on the voyage and recorded them in his journal.
The State library of New South Wales have the Manuscript of Bradley’s journal.
These observations were published as The weather of the First Fleet voyage to Botany Bay, 1787–1788, Gergis et al., 2010,
Transcribed observations¶
CSV files: Main, Supplement.
Conversion scripts¶
#!/usr/bin/perl
# Process the digitised First-Fleet data into
# IMMA records.
use strict;
use warnings;
use IMMA;
use Getopt::Long;
use FindBin;
use Date::Calc qw(Delta_Days);
use MarineOb::lmrlib qw(rxltut ixdtnd rxnddt fxtftc fxeimb fwbptc fwbpgv);
my $Last_lon = -4;
my $Last_lat = 50;
for ( my $i = 0 ; $i < 1 ; $i++ ) { <>; } # Skip headers
while ( my $Line = <> ) {
my @Fields = apply_qc( split /\t/, $Line );
my $Ob = new IMMA;
$Ob->clear();
push @{ $Ob->{attachments} }, 0;
# On the Sirius
$Ob->{ID} = "Sirius";
# Date
if ( $Fields[0] =~ /(\d\d)\/(\d\d)\/(\d\d\d\d)/ ) {
$Ob->{YR} = $3;
$Ob->{MO} = $2;
$Ob->{DY} = $1;
$Ob->{HR} = 12;
}
else { die "Bad date format $Fields[0]"; }
if ( defined( $Fields[1] ) && $Fields[1] =~ /\d/ ) {
$Ob->{LAT} = $Fields[1];
}
if ( defined( $Fields[2] ) && $Fields[2] =~ /\d/ ) {
$Ob->{LON} = $Fields[2];
}
if ( !defined( $Ob->{LAT} )
&& !defined( $Ob->{LON} )
&& defined( $Fields[5] ) )
{
( $Ob->{LAT}, $Ob->{LON} ) = get_position_from_place( $Fields[5] );
}
if(defined($Ob->{LON})) {
$Last_lon = $Ob->{LON};
}
if(defined($Ob->{LAT})) {
$Last_lat = $Ob->{LAT};
}
# Convert dates to UTC
if ( defined($Last_lon) ) {
my $elon = $Last_lon;
if ( $elon < 0 ) {
$elon += 360;
if ( $elon > 359.99 ) { $elon = 359.99; }
}
my ( $uhr, $udy ) = rxltut(
$Ob->{HR} * 100,
ixdtnd( $Ob->{DY}, $Ob->{MO}, $Ob->{YR} ),
$elon * 100
);
$Ob->{HR} = $uhr / 100;
( $Ob->{DY}, $Ob->{MO}, $Ob->{YR} ) = rxnddt($udy);
}
else { $Ob->{HR} = undef; }
$Ob->{IM} = 0; # Check with Scott
$Ob->{ATTC} = 1; # Supplemental
$Ob->{TI} = 0; # Nearest hour time precision
$Ob->{DS} = undef; # Unknown course
$Ob->{VS} = undef; # Unknown speed
$Ob->{NID} = 3; # Check with Scott
$Ob->{II} = 10; # Check with Scott
# Air temperature in Farenheit
if ( defined( $Fields[3] ) && $Fields[3] =~ /\d/ ) {
$Ob->{AT} = fxtftc( $Fields[3]);
}
# Pressure in English inches
if ( defined( $Fields[4] ) && $Fields[4] =~ /\d/ ) {
$Ob->{SLP} = fxeimb( $Fields[4]);
}
# Barometer corrections deliberately omitted
# Temperature correction
#if ( defined( $Ob->{SLP} )
# && defined( $Ob->{AT} ) )
#{
# $Ob->{SLP} += fwbptc( $Ob->{SLP}, $Ob->{AT} );
#}
#else { $Ob->{SLP} = undef; }
# Gravity correction
#if ( defined( $Ob->{SLP} ) && defined($Last_lat) ) {
# $Ob->{SLP} += fwbpgv( $Ob->{SLP}, $Last_lat, 2 );
#}
# Add the original record as a supplemental attachment
push @{ $Ob->{attachments} }, 99;
$Ob->{ATTE} = undef;
chomp($Line);
$Ob->{SUPD} = $Line;
# Output the noon ob
$Ob->write( \*STDOUT );
}
# Return (Lat,Long) given a place name
sub get_position_from_place {
my $Name = lc(shift);
if ( $Name =~ /teneriffe/ ) {
return ( 28.47, -16.23 );
}
if ( $Name =~ /rio jameiro/ ) {
return ( -22.8, -43.15 );
}
if ( $Name =~ /table bay/ ) {
return ( -34.17, 18.44 );
}
warn "Unknown location $Name";
return ( undef, undef );
}
# Correct some clearly erronious values
sub apply_qc {
my @Fields = (@_);
if ( $Fields[0] eq '19/05/1787' ) { $Fields[4] = 29.94; }
if ( $Fields[0] eq '24/05/1787' ) { $Fields[1] = 44.15; }
if ( $Fields[0] eq '25/09/1787' ) {
$Fields[2] = -14.27;
$Fields[4] = 29.93;
}
if ( $Fields[0] eq '19/10/1787' ) { $Fields[3] = 67; }
if ( $Fields[0] eq '07/11/1787' ) { $Fields[4] = 29.9; }
if ( $Fields[0] eq '21/11/1787' ) { $Fields[4] = 29.88; }
if ( $Fields[0] eq '28/11/1787' ) {
$Fields[3] = 62;
$Fields[4] = 30.08;
}
if ( $Fields[0] eq '04/12/1787' ) { $Fields[4] = 29.88; }
if ( $Fields[0] eq '15/12/1787' ) { $Fields[1] = -40.56; }
return @Fields;
}
#!/usr/bin/perl
# Process the extra digitised First-Fleet data into
# IMMA records.
# Extra values from after arrival in Botany Bay
use strict;
use warnings;
use IMMA;
use Getopt::Long;
use FindBin;
use Date::Calc qw(Delta_Days);
use MarineOb::lmrlib qw(rxltut ixdtnd rxnddt fxtftc fxeimb fwbptc fwbpgv);
# Position of Port Jackson
my $Last_lat = -33.85;
my $Last_lon = 151.23;
for ( my $i = 0 ; $i < 1 ; $i++ ) { <>; } # Skip headers
while ( my $Line = <> ) {
my @Fields = split /\t/, $Line;
my $Ob = new IMMA;
$Ob->clear();
push @{ $Ob->{attachments} }, 0;
# On the Sirius
$Ob->{ID} = "Sirius";
# Date
if ( $Fields[0] =~ /(\d\d)\/(\d\d)\/(\d\d\d\d)/ ) {
$Ob->{YR} = $3;
$Ob->{MO} = $2;
$Ob->{DY} = $1;
$Ob->{HR} = 12;
}
else { die "Bad date format $Fields[0]"; }
$Ob->{LAT} = $Last_lat;
$Ob->{LON} = $Last_lon;
# Convert dates to UTC
if ( defined($Last_lon) ) {
my $elon = $Last_lon;
if ( $elon < 0 ) {
$elon += 360;
if ( $elon > 359.99 ) { $elon = 359.99; }
}
my ( $uhr, $udy ) = rxltut(
$Ob->{HR} * 100,
ixdtnd( $Ob->{DY}, $Ob->{MO}, $Ob->{YR} ),
$elon * 100
);
$Ob->{HR} = $uhr / 100;
( $Ob->{DY}, $Ob->{MO}, $Ob->{YR} ) = rxnddt($udy);
}
else { $Ob->{HR} = undef; }
$Ob->{IM} = 0; # Check with Scott
$Ob->{ATTC} = 1; # Supplemental
$Ob->{TI} = 0; # Nearest hour time precision
$Ob->{DS} = undef; # Unknown course
$Ob->{VS} = undef; # Unknown speed
$Ob->{NID} = 3; # Check with Scott
$Ob->{II} = 10; # Check with Scott
# Air temperature in Farenheit
if ( defined( $Fields[1] ) && $Fields[1] =~ /\d/ ) {
$Ob->{AT} = fxtftc( $Fields[1]);
}
# Pressure in English inches
if ( defined( $Fields[3] ) && $Fields[3] =~ /\d/ ) {
$Ob->{SLP} = fxeimb( $Fields[3]);
}
# Barometer corrections deliberately omitted
# Temperature correction
#if ( defined( $Ob->{SLP} )
# && defined( $Ob->{AT} ) )
#{
# $Ob->{SLP} += fwbptc( $Ob->{SLP}, $Ob->{AT} );
#}
#else { $Ob->{SLP} = undef; }
# Gravity correction
#if ( defined( $Ob->{SLP} ) && defined($Last_lat) ) {
# $Ob->{SLP} += fwbpgv( $Ob->{SLP}, $Last_lat, 2 );
#}
# Add the original record as a supplemental attachment
push @{ $Ob->{attachments} }, 99;
$Ob->{ATTE} = undef;
chomp($Line);
$Ob->{SUPD} = $Line;
# Output the noon ob
$Ob->write( \*STDOUT );
}