James Horsburgh

HORSBURGH, James, 1762-1836. Hydrographer. James Horsburgh, the hydrographer and chart maker and ‘nautical oracle of the world’, was born in 1762 in the coastal town of Elie in Scotland. James himself described his parents as ‘pious, and respectable, but not opulent’. At the age of sixteen he started as a cook and cabin boy in the North Sea coal ships. Seafaring was a dangerous business in more ways than one: he was captured by a French privateer and imprisoned in Dunkirk; he was stranded in Diego Garcia following the wreck of his ship; and later in London he avoided the pressgang by pretending to be Danish. After a passage to India in 1783, he decided he wanted to stay in India rather than return to England and swam from the ship back to Calcutta, narrowly avoiding being swept out to sea. Once on dry land he became a rigger in the shipyard of a fellow townsman from Elie and began working his way up through the East India Company.
While working on ships trading between India and China, Horsburgh gained experience of shoals, winds, and currents in the China Sea and developed an interest in scientific observation, teaching himself drawing, etching and studying late into the night when in port. Most of his voyages were between India and China but he periodically travelled to Europe, continuing on to the West Indies before returning to India. All this time he was meticulously compiling charts and sailing directions. They were so accurate that Horsburgh was criticised for inadvertently aiding opium smuggling. He replied that ‘As they will continue that vile trade we may as well afford the means of preserving their lives’. The East India Company published his charts together with Observations on the Eastern Seas, an equally important editing of the data he collected to provide context and background. On his trips back to England over the years Horsburgh had been introduced to the scientific circle which included Sir Joseph Banks, Nevil Maskelyne, and Henry Cavendish and he capitalised on the connections. For Cavendish he maintained continuous barometer registers, taken every four hours, by day or night, at sea or in harbour. He retired in Canton in 1804 and returned to Britain for good the next year, his retirement briefly delayed by his unsuccessful attempts to initiate a boat survey in the China Sea. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1806.
His time in the China Seas had not made him wealthy so in retirement he published his extensive collection of charts which his friends had persuaded him to hang on to and not leave behind with his successors. In particular, the snappily 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, was published to acclaim. In 1810 he became hydrographer to the East India Company, responsible for supervising the engraving of charts sent back to London by marine surveyors in India and examining the journals of returning ships for data to refine oceanic navigation charts. He continued to revise his sailing directions, subsequently known as the India Directory, which became the standard work for oriental navigation.
Having served extensively on long voyages overseas, Horsburgh did not marry until late in life. In 1805, the year he returned to England, aged 43 he married 17-year-old Elizabeth Longworth and they settled in Saville Row, Walworth. Their first daughter, Jane Frances, was born in 1808 and Elizabeth, followed in 1815. Three years later 37 Herne Hill had been built for them, held on a 78-year lease (later renumbered 131). James was born in 1821 when Horsburgh himself was 59. He was devoted to his family but sadly, Elizabeth died in 1829.
Horsburgh died in 1836 at the age of 74. When the news reached Canton a subscription was opened for a memorial to him, resulting in the construction of the Horsburgh lighthouse the oldest in Singapore. Horsburgh Island in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands is also named after him but his lasting memorial was the incalculable number of lives his charts were said to have saved. With the demise of the East India Company many of Horsburgh’s charts were issued as admiralty charts. St Paul’s Church, Herne Hill, contains a fine memorial to him. Both he and his wife are buried in the Burial Ground.