Crew’s (B)log: Update on Abbotsford’s ‘A Light in the Dark’ project

Scott scholars Hilary Clydesdale and Ainsley McIntosh give an update on their exciting summer project transcribing Walter Scott’s Lighthouse Yacht diary (1814).

210 years ago, on 15 August 1814, Walter Scott celebrated a birthday with a difference. Far from Abbotsford and its familiar surroundings, Scott spent his summer and birthday of 1814 onboard the Northern Lighthouse Board’s sloop named the Pharos, pleasurably engaged upon a six-week sea voyage around the coast of Scotland and her islands. We are similarly delighted to be spending our summer transcribing the manuscript of the daily diary that Scott kept during this expedition, which records his impressions of the stunning sights, landscapes, and communities he encountered along the way. Thanks to this five-notebook journal, we have a detailed record of how Scott spent his 43^rd birthday.

In the two and a half weeks preceding his birthday, Scott and his companions made swift progress on their voyage and Scott was meticulous in documenting his experiences and using his diary as a way to preserve, savour and analyse the impressions each day had left on him, even as he set off for a new destination on his adventure-filled expedition. 

Scott was forced to quickly acclimatize to sea-life as the blustery weather made the crew and passengers very uncomfortable. But these uncomfortable conditions at sea aided the yacht’s swift passage up Scotland’s East Coast: within a week, it had made good progress across the North Sea surrounding Fife, Angus, Aberdeenshire and up to the mouth of the Moray Firth, with time allowed to stop at places of interest onshore along the way. By the evening of 3 August, Scott and his companions had reached Lerwick Harbour, the most northerly commercial port in Britain.

This progress of the Pharos came as a surprise to Scott, his companions, and even to the vessel’s Captain! Due to strong winds, stormy weather and hazy sailing conditions, the crew and passengers lost their bearings and came to realise they had already passed the Fair Isle where they had planned to land. Luckily, they managed to pick up the Fair Isle and its lighthouse later in their voyage! Noting this in his journal, Scott remarks, ‘In short like one of Sinbads adventures we have run on till neither Captain nor pilot know exactly where we are.’ This comment typifies Scott’s imaginative capacity to transform mundane reality into something altogether more romantic. So too, it captures his boyish excitement at being aboard this vessel bound for Britain’s far northern and western reaches. In turn, it is easy for us to imagine that, engaged in such an adventure of his own, Scott’s 43^rd birthday was a very happy one indeed!

By 15 August, Scott was well on his way exploring Orkney. On his birthday, Scott enjoyed an excursion down the Pentland Firth during which he observed violent whirlpools near the islands of Swona and Stroma and visited a small, low lighthouse on Skerries, a 60-acre island surrounded by romantic inlets home to basking seals and their pups. Each of his encounters with the rugged, beautiful, and treacherous Scottish coastal landscape on his voyage ‘to Nova Zembla and the Lord Knows Where’ has a palpable impact on Scott, each encounter recalled in remarkable detail in his diary and documented with obvious excitement and awe.

It was certainly lucky for Scott that his 43rd birthday did not fall on one of the voyage’s long and choppy sea-days during which Scott and his fellow landsmen regularly suffered from terrible seasickness. The weather became particularly stormy at night and Scott complains that

 the breeze increases & muting at night with a heavy rolling tide the weather may be calld rough - worse & worse after we are in our berths nothing but bouncing trampling & whizzing of waves about our ears & ever & anon as we fall asleep our ribs come in contact with those of the vessell [sic].

Over the course of the night, Scott tries to call out to his travelling companions in the next berth but quickly discovers that they are too sick to respond! During the comparative calm of the sea during their days, Scott and his companions slowly recover by singing ballads, reciting poems, and playing a selection of games on board, including picquet, backgammon and chess. It is also in these moments of calm that Scott takes the opportunity to update his journal and to write home.

We will certainly take Scott’s lead and ensure that we continue to share the details of his adventures with you as they continue to unfold…

Look out for further updates keeping you abreast of Scott’s journey and our own voyage of discovery as we chart a steady course of transcription over the coming months!