13 Mar 2009
This richly illustrated journal, containing 58 separate watercolours in total, covers the career of Major Kirkham, seamen in both the royal navy and merchant service (MSS/88/056). Chronologically, he begins his career in 1798; leaving his home in Crayford he boards the Providence of London on a voyage to the Baltic Sea. The journal contains meteorological data, as expected in a maritime log, but also contains a variety of other events and especially detailed descriptions of towns and cities visited, with statistics concerning population, distances, number of churches and any other features of interest. Whilst sailing past Denmark, Kirkham produces a rather eccentric watercolour of Elsinor (Elsinore). The illustration includes Kronborg castle, known as the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet.
His next journey, in 1800, follows the Brig Martha on her voyage from London to Kent to Somerset and then back to Kent again. Illustrations from this part of the journal include Canterbury, Dover and Reading. The Martha is taken by privateers at Deal but is subsequently freed.
Kirkham served on the Royal George between 1806 and 1809 as a seamen and his career included visiting the Mediterranean, the Dardanelles, Gallipoli and Constantinople. Of the events that took place, he witnessed a court martial off Cadiz, whilst part of Lord Collingwood's fleet, observed the burning of the Ajax, near the Dardanelles, where only 350 men and women were saved. On 20 July 1807, off Devon, he writes that a woman on board was found dead. There is no context provided or anything more reported and many of the comments in the journal are as various as they are brief. 
The Royal George was previously named the Umpire and renamed in September 1782, after the famous loss of the Royal George at Spithead a month earlier.
Other interesting details in the journal include a very detailed index of his major voyages between 1798 and 1809 and a series of street maps of various English towns and cities. Towards the end are letters to Government from Sir S J Duckworth off Constantinople, 21 February 1807 and astronomical notes, 1814-5, separated into the four seasons of the year.
Mike (Manuscripts Department)