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James Horsburgh (28 September 176214 May 1836) was a Scottish
Electric Scotland
a major educational resource on Scottish History. {{DEFAULTSORT:Horsburgh, James 1762 births 1834 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society People from Elie and Earlsferry Scottish cartographers Scottish hydrographers
James Horsburgh (28 September 176214 May 1836) was a Scottish hydrographer
Hydrography is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the physical features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the prediction of their change over time, for the primary p ...
. He worked for the British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
, (EIC) and mapped many seaways around Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
in the late 18th century and early 19th century.
Life
Born atElie
Elie and Earlsferry is a coastal town and former royal burgh in Fife, and parish, Scotland, situated within the East Neuk beside Chapel Ness on the north coast of the Firth of Forth, eight miles east of Leven. The burgh comprised the linked v ...
, Fife, Horsburgh went to sea at the age of 16 and was captured and imprisoned by the French at Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
and Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
. In May 1786, aboard the EIC ship ''Atlas'' he sailed from Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
to Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
as first mate and was subsequently shipwrecked on the island of Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia is an island of the British Indian Ocean Territory, a disputed overseas territory of the United Kingdom. It is a militarised atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of the 60 small islands of ...
. This disaster influenced him in his decision to produce accurate maps after he found his way back to India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and while on board another ship employed in trade with China.
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'.
Horsburgh's Directory became the standard work for oriental navigation in the first half of the 19th century, until Robert Moresby
Robert Moresby (15 June 1794 – 15 June 1854Some sources mention that he is thought to have died in 1863.) was a captain of the East India Company's Bombay Marine/Indian Navy who distinguished himself as a hydrographer, maritime surveyor a ...
'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
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...
, Chagos
The Chagos Archipelago () or Chagos Islands (formerly the Bassas de Chagas, and later the Oil Islands) is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of the Maldives arc ...
and Laccadives
Lakshadweep (), also known as Laccadives (), is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian sea, located off the Malabar Coast.
The name ''Lakshadweep'' means "one lakh islands" in Sanskrit, though the Lacc ...
, were published. In March, 1806 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
Legacy
Robert Moresby, during his survey of the Maldives in 1834, named a small atoll south ofSouthern Maalhosmadulhu Atoll
Southern Maalhosmadulu Atoll (code name Baa) is an administrative division of the Maldives. It consists of two separate natural atolls, namely the southern part of Maalhosmadulhu Atoll (which is 42 km long and 32 km wide and consists of ...
after James Horsburgh as a homage to his valuable previous hydrographic work.
Horsburgh Island
Horsburgh Island (in Malay, Pulo Luar or Pulu Luar) is one of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Its area is . There is a small lagoon in the interior of the island to the northeast.
History
The Clunies-Ross Family kept deer on the island for hunting ...
in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands
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is also named after him as is the Horsburgh Lighthouse
Horsburgh Lighthouse (Chinese: ; ms, Rumah Api Horsburgh; ta, ஹோர்ஸ்பர் கலங்கரை விளக்கம்) is an active lighthouse which marks the eastern entrance to the Straits of Singapore. It is situated on t ...
, located on Pedra Branca, Singapore
Pedra Branca () is an outlying island and the easternmost point of Singapore.For the history, historical cartography, and toponymy of ''Pedra Branca'', cf. Ong, Brenda Man Qing, and Francesco Perono Cacciafoco. (2022). Pedra Branca off Singapor ...
, the construction of which was funded by a group of British merchants in Canton, China (now Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...
).
Horsburgh was the first to document the island now known as Spratly Island
Spratly Island, also known as Storm Island ( vi, Đảo Trường Sa Lớn; ; ), is the fourth largest of the naturally occurring Spratly Islands in the South China Sea with an area of , and the largest of the Vietnamese-administered Spratly isl ...
, naming it Storm Island. However, Richard Spratly
Captain Richard Spratly (1802–1870) was a British sea captain and contributor to navigational records, after whom the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea are named.
Early life
Richard Spratly was born on 22 January 1802 in the parish of All ...
's sighting eventually become the vernacular and led to the naming of the entire region as the Spratly Islands
The Spratly Islands ( fil, Kapuluan ng Kalayaan; zh, c=南沙群島/南沙群岛, s=, t=, p=Nánshā Qúndǎo; Malay, id, Kepulauan Spratly; vi, Quần đảo Trường Sa) are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed o ...
.
Works
*See also
* Atolls of the Maldives *Alexander Dalrymple
Alexander Dalrymple Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (24 July 1737 – 19 June 1808) was a Scotland, Scottish geographer and the first Hydrographer of the Navy, Hydrographer of the British Admiralty. He was the main proponent of the theory ...
, 1st Hydrographer of the Navy
* Fehendu / Fulhadu
* Horsburgh Atoll
*Robert Moresby
Robert Moresby (15 June 1794 – 15 June 1854Some sources mention that he is thought to have died in 1863.) was a captain of the East India Company's Bombay Marine/Indian Navy who distinguished himself as a hydrographer, maritime surveyor a ...
References
Bibliography *External links
Electric Scotland
a major educational resource on Scottish History. {{DEFAULTSORT:Horsburgh, James 1762 births 1834 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society People from Elie and Earlsferry Scottish cartographers Scottish hydrographers