PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Local researchers are using centuries-old whaling log books to study how weather patterns have changed.
Part of their research is being done at the Providence Public Library, which has a large collection of whaling log books.
The books are not recreations: The words, numbers and pictures were handwritten at sea. They were collected by a wealthy collector who realized there was valuable information in these pages, and bequested them to the library. The books, which date back to 1790, contain latitude and longitude information about where the whales were, as well as weather data.
“The weather was important for their navigation,” said Tim Walker, a historian at UMass Dartmouth…