Description
This work comprises two engaging reminiscences by Royal Naval Surgeon William Guthrie Borland. The first, ‘Rough Sketch of my Sea Life’, covers the period 1814 to 1837 and Borland’s experiences on the high seas, starting with the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of 1812, including the British burning of Washington. His detailed accounts of his travels will appeal to maritime history enthusiasts, as well as those interested in 19th-century naval medicine. This diary includes tales of smugglers, pirates, scurvy and starvation. During his time with the Royal Navy, Borland traversed the globe from Rio de Janeiro to Sicily, and he recorded engaging descriptions of his stops along the way, including once-great cities of the past and a climb up Mount Vesuvius.
Borland’s second work is ‘The Diary of HMS Dorothea’, an account of the disaster-plagued 1818 Arctic expedition led by Captain David Buchan. The HMS Dorothea and HMS Trent together undertook one of the first Arctic explorations following the Napoleonic Wars. They were instructed to sail over the North Pole! Whalers had reported that the ice between Greenland and Spitzbergen had melted, but by the time the expedition arrived the ice had reappeared, and Borland and the others were trapped in ice for weeks. Once they returned to open water, they were caught in a storm that damaged the ship so badly they had to return home, Borland having meanwhile taken a bullet meant for a reindeer.
William Guthrie Borland, a naval surgeon, was born in 1794 in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland in 1794, one of ten children born to Thomas Borland and Christian Simpson (or Simson). This 108-page PDF was transcribed by Robert Stevenson, who has also written an introduction and detailed appendix contextualising Borland’s experiences. Stevenson’s commentary includes a genealogy of the Borland family based on extensive research. Other families mentioned include Dalziel, Kirkhope and Martin.
PDF version was created by Robert Stevenson, assisted by John Wotherspoon, in 2025, 104 pages.
