James Horsburgh
James Horsburgh (28 September 1762 – 14 May 1836) was a Scottish hydrographer. He worked for the British East India Company, (EIC) and mapped many seaways around Singapore in the late 18th century and early 19th century.
Life[edit]
Born at Elie, Fife, Horsburgh was apprenticed to Messrs. Wood, merchants of Elie. He went to sea at the age of 16 sailing from Newcastle to Hamburg, Holland, and Ostend, mainly in the coal trade. In May 1870 his ship was captured by the French, and he was imprisoned at Dunkirk.[1] After his release, he made voyages to the West Indies and Calcutta. On 30 May 1786, on board the EIC ship Atlas sailing from Batavia to Ceylon he was shipwrecked on the island of Diego Garcia.[2][3] This disaster influenced him in his decision to devote himself to producing accurate charts and improving navigation skills.[4]
After his rescue from the shipwreck on Diego Garcia, he travelled to Bombay, and joined the crew of the Gunjanwar in which he became first mate. He spent the next ten years in several large ships trading between Bombay, Bengal and China. In 1791 he joined the Anna. During two voyages to China he taught himself drawing, etching and sperics, and made many observations which enabled him to construct three charts -- of the Strait of Macassar; of the western part of the Philippines; and of the track from Dampier Strait, through Pitt Passage, to Batavia.[1]
James Horsburgh was the author of the precisely titled Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the interjacent Ports, compiled chiefly from original Journals and Observations made during 21 years' experience in navigating those Seas, also known as the 'India Directory'.[5]
Horsburgh's Directory became the standard work for oriental navigation in the first half of the 19th century, until Robert Moresby's survey of the treacherous coral groups in the central Indian Ocean, when for the first time in history accurate maps of the areas that were in the way of the main trade routes: the Maldives, Chagos and Laccadives, were published. In March, 1806 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society[6]
Legacy[edit]
Robert Moresby, during his survey of the Maldives in 1834, named a small atoll south of Southern Maalhosmadulhu Atoll after James Horsburgh as a homage to his valuable previous hydrographic work.
Horsburgh Island in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands is also named after him as is the Horsburgh Lighthouse, located on Pedra Branca, Singapore, the construction of which was funded by a group of British merchants in Canton, China (now Guangzhou).[3]
Horsburgh was the first to document the island now known as Spratly Island, naming it Storm Island. However, Richard Spratly's sighting eventually become the vernacular and led to the naming of the entire region as the Spratly Islands.[7]
Works[edit]
- James Horsburgh (1817). India Sailing Directory. Chart Office, East India House – via Internet Archive.
See also[edit]
- Atolls of the Maldives
- Alexander Dalrymple, 1st Hydrographer of the Navy
- Fehendu / Fulhadu
- Horsburgh Atoll
- Robert Moresby
References[edit]
- ^ a b Dawson, Llewellyn Styles (1885). Memoirs of hydrography, including brief biographies of the principal officers who have served in H.M. Naval Surveying Service between the years 1750 and 1885. Part 1. - 1750 to 1830. Eastbourne: Henry W. Keay. p. 32-33.
- ^ Horsburgh, James (1841). The India Directory, Or: Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, Australia and the Interjacent Ports of Africa and South America Volume 1 (Fifth ed.). London: Wm. H. Allen and Co. p. 201n.
- ^ a b Chakravorty, Capt. Raj S (2008), "James Horsburgh", Hydro International, 12 (7), archived from the original on 2014-03-07, retrieved 2008-12-13
- ^ Fry, H.T. (1967). "Early British Interest in the Chagos Archipelago and the Maldive Islands". The Mariner's Mirror. 53 (4): 343–356. doi:10.1080/00253359.1967.10659404.
- ^ Alfred C. Haddon, Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits-Vol 1 General Ethnography
- ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 21 November 2010.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Hancox & Prescott 1995, pp. 14–15.
Bibliography
- Hancox, David; Prescott, Victor (1995), Schofield, Clive (ed.), "A Geographical Description of the Spratly Islands and an Account of Hydrographic Surveys Amongst Those Islands", Maritime Briefing, 1 (6), UK: International Boundaries Research Unit, University of Durham, ISBN 1-897643-18-7
External links[edit]
- Electric Scotland, a major educational resource on Scottish History.
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