James Horsburgh

James Horsburgh F.R.S (23 September 176214 May 1836) was a Scottish hydrographer. He worked for the British East India Company, (EIC) and mapped many seaways in the Indian Ocean, the Malay Archipelago, and China in the late 18th century and early 19th century. He is best-known for the India Directory, a set of sailing directions that became a standard work for over half a century.

Life James Horsburgh was born at Elie in Fife. His parents were poor, but were able to secure him an education at a local school, and he learned the basics of mathematics, book-keeping and navigation theory. He 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 1770 his ship was captured by the French, and he was imprisoned at Dunkirk. 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. This disaster influenced him in his decision to devote himself to producing accurate charts and improving navigation skills.

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. These charts were forwarded to Alexander Dalrymple, hydrographer to the EIC, who published them for the use of the Company's ships. Horsburgh received a letter of thanks, and a sum of money for the purchase of nautical instruments. In that year Horsburgh sailed to England on the Cirencester. On this voyage his companion was Captain Peter Heywood of the Royal Navy, an experienced surveyor who subsequently assisted him in preparing his works for publication. In 1808, he published the India Directory, Or, Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, Brazil, and the Interjacent Ports. This work, as comprehensive as its title suggests, was compiled partly from his own observations and charts, made over 21 years of navigating in those waters, and partly from collating and summarising the journals and reports of other navigators held by the EIC. It became a standard work for navigation for over half a century, going through numerous editions, the last being the eighth in 1864.

Alexander Dalrymple died in 1808. Two years later, Horsbrurgh was appointed as his successor in the post of hydrographer to the EIC. In 1819 he published a revised and extended edition of Murdoch Mackenzie's Treatise on Marine Surveying. He died in May 1836, aged 74 years.