July 3rd - 19th, 1823. The voyage is becoming tedious

July 3rd/4th/5th, 1823 [still languishing on the Atlantic] - Nothing particular; almost a perfect calm. I found my Spanish grammar a great relief, and sometimes I took a book of Linnean transactions.  [Douglas, on Hooker's recommendation, is attempting the 1823 version of Teach-Yourself-Spanish.  Although he'll not need it on this expedition to the eastern seaboard it will prove very handy when he reaches California in a few years time.]

July 9th, 1823 - At 4am heavy shower. I could not but observe how the dogs eagerly licked the decks. Some passengers washing their clothes.

July 18th/19th, 1823 - Water very bad at tea  [What does he mean by this?  Is he describing rough seas or the state of the ‘fresh’ water carried on board?  I suspect, six weeks into the voyage, that it’s the latter, although it’s not going to get any better before they make landfall.]

June 29th - July 2nd 1823. So near and yet so far.

June 29th, 1823  [23 days after leaving Liverpool] - at 8 o'clock am had a delightful view of Flores (one of the Azores Islands), distance about fifteen leagues, appears to be very rocky. Pleasant. Shot four sea-fowl, but I could not pick them up, the current being strong.

June 30th, 1823 - at 4 o'clock am had Flores within 3 leagues. North of the island, observed small shrubs with Captain's glass; prepared the boat for going on shore.

July 1st, 1823 - Wind favourable, which prevented the Captain sending the boat on shore, which was a disappointment to me. Peak of Pico in view, distance nine leagues.

July 2nd, 1823 - Rather foggy; lost sight of the islands [clearly DD was disappointed not to set foot on the Azores]

June 17th - 26th, 1823. Slow progress but Happy Birthday David

June 17th, 1823 - [Still on the Atlantic heading for New York]. Light airs during forenoon and calm towards even. I was amused by enormous shoals of porpoises surrounding the ship.

June 20th, 1823 - A brig and a sloop in company, which afforded pleasure

June 25th/26th, 1823 - This being my birthday (I completing my twenty-fourth year) and the market day of my native place, I could not help thinking over the days that were gone. Light airs of wind, making little progress.

June 5th - 12th, 1823. Struggling to get away

June 5th, 1823 - Went on board at 6am, when to the great mortification of the Captain he could not clear the river [Mersey], but was truly goodness to me. I then came on shore again and called at Botanic Garden a second time. I thus had full scope of seeing it in perfection.

 

June 6th, 1823 - on board at 9 o'clock am in tow of two power steam-boats, which left 15 miles down the channel; we made but little progress, wind being rather contrary. 
I wonder what DD's accommodation was like on the Ann Maria.  Did he have a cabin or just a bunk?  Were there communal areas?  I guess so, not least for eating.  Presumably the vessel had a cook but was food provided or did passengers, which Douglas was (ie. not crew), have to provide their own food to be cooked by the cook?  Indeed, are there any contemporary accounts of what a transatlantic voyage was like in 1823?  Isabella Bird gives an excellent account of such a voyage in "The Englishwoman in America" but that is 30 years after Douglas, in 1854.

 

June 7th, 1823 - All day tossing in the channel, made little or nothing [progress]; few of the passengers were exempted from sickness. I felt perfectly comfortable, only a headache which was occasioned by cold when on my way to Liverpool. 

June 8th/9th, 1823 - Thick rainy weather. Strong heavy gales and tremendous sea towards noon June 10th, 1823 - This was the first good morning we had; most of passengers still sick. Clouds of sea-fowl continue to surround the vessel; Welsh coast in sight. 

June11th/12th, 1823 - Winds averse; Isle of Man on the right, Isle of Anglesea [sic] on the left, at a great distance rocky shores of Wales in view.

So it's taken him six days to get from the Mersey Docks in Liverpool to the middle of the Irish Sea. That is VERY slow progress and highlights the difficulty of travel in a slow-paced sailing ship

June 3rd, 1823 - London & Liverpool

Left Charing Cross by coach for Liverpool. Morning very pleasant; had rained through the night, country very fine for seventeen miles from the metropolis. Beautiful fields at Woburn Abbey tastefully laid out and divided by hedgerows in which are planted Horse-chestnuts at regular distances, all in full flower; had a very imposing appearance.

Northampton at 2.30 o'clock pm, rested 25 minutes; reached Lancaster quarter to 10pm, [still on the 3^rd, presumably] took supper, started again half past 10, rain during the night, very cold. arrived at Liverpool 4 o'clock afternoon [presumably on June 4th].

There is something very odd about this journey, as he describes it. The journey time from London to Northampton is OK but then he describes the next stop as Lancaster, which is about 60 miles NORTH of Liverpool. Why would the coach go so far north only to have to return south again? And then why would it take so long, from 10.30pm to 4pm the following day to do only 60 miles from Lancaster to Liverpool? I think "Lancaster" is a transcription error when the Journal was published. I wondered whether it should be Manchester, but that is even closer to Liverpool than Lancaster. On reflection, I think Lancaster is actually Doncaster, on the Great North Road and a well-known coaching destination. The necessity to then cross the Pennines overnight would explain why it took so long to reach Liverpool. Even in midsummer, which this was (close to the solstice), this would be a difficult journey.

After calling on Messrs Monal & Woodward [shipping agents in Liverpool?] and learning that the Ann Maria of New York was to sail the following morning, in which a passage had been taken for me, I arranged my business as to my departure and made for Botanic Garden. [An interesting phrase - “A passage had been taken for me”. Presumably this was paid for by the Horticultural Society, along with the journey to Liverpool. There may perhaps be records of the transaction in the Minute Books and Accounts of the RHS]

Mr Shepherd received me in the most handsome manner; showed me all his treasures (of which not a few were from North America). The plants in the hot-houses look well. After spending a little time with Mr Shepherd and returning thanks, I made my way for town again. I had an interview with Capt Tair, who commands the Ann Maria: he informed me that he intended to sail the following morning [ie the 5^th. Douglas has crammed a lot into his only afternoon in Liverpool, not arriving until 4pm, dashing about to the Botanic Garden and back to the docks. Where did he stay overnight before sailing?  Are there any images or records of the Ann Maria?  Are there any images of the Liverpool Botanic Garden in 1823?].

Prologue

David Douglas's plant collecting journeys started with a trip to the east coast of the United States in 1823. Leaving London on June 3rd that year he returned in early January 1824. Ideally, I would have liked to do a day-by-day, on the actual day, account here with extracts from his Journal, the detailed daily diary the Horticultural Society required him to keep, but time has marched on and I'm hopelessly out of synch. So let me now, instead, attempt to capture an abridged version of that first 'proving' trip where Douglas first demonstrated his value to the Horticultural Society. Douglas, keen to demonstrate his attention to detail and powers of observation, sometimes gives us too much.  So the format will be 'abridged verbatim' from his Journal with interspersed commentary.  In particular, don't expect long botanical lists of his finds; this will focus more on his activities, the places he went and the people he met.

  

I’ll be working from his Journal entries, on a day-by-day basis following his entries. These blog posts won’t necessarily be a complete verbatim transcription – I’ll be selective about what I think are the interesting bits. Feel free to disagree. It will get you reading his Journal and reaching your own conclusions. I attach a link to his Journal.

In particular, I won’t be reproducing long lists of plants he collected everyday. I will, though, be including some of the landmark finds. Selective you see, at my discretion. In truth, I’m more interested in the sociology of David Douglas – the times, places and societies he lived and travelled in – than the purely botanical aspects, although I would be remiss not to touch on botanical and horticultural themes.

I’ll try to do a post every day but try not to be heartbroken if I fail occasionally – life just gets in the way sometimes. In parallel, I’ll be collating these blog posts into a standalone document.

And – IMPORTANT POINT – COMMENTS ARE WELCOME PLEASE. Let’s make this a living, developing resource where we all think about the life of this remarkable man and use this modern device of a blog– which he would surely have used if it had been around in the 1820s – to honour his memory.

Finally – SECOND IMPORTANT POINT – looking ahead, Douglas will cross the bar of the Columbia River on April 7^th, 1825 and set foot on land on April 9^th. Fast forward to 2025, a mere 7½ years from now, and it will be the 200^th anniversary of his landfall in the PNW. Something to think about? I’ll be a sprightly 75 by then.

Hello and Welcome

This is the first post to a new blog - The World of David Douglas.

Who was David Douglas?  A Scottish plant collector, born in Scone, Perthshire in 1799, who travelled extensively in North America and died in gruesome circumstances in Hawaii in 1834.  Douglas introduced many plant and tree species which are still common today.  Anyone who has a Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum) in their garden has a Douglas introduction.  His tree species, including, for example, Sitka Spruce, are a mainstay of the UK's commercial forestry industry.

And who am I?

I am Gordon Mason, a Botanical Historian focusing particularly on David Douglas (1799-1834) and based in Sheffield, UK. Although I spent my working life as a career civil servant in the UK I graduated with an Honours degree (1971) and Doctorate (1975) in botany and experimental plant ecology. But it has been a long time since I was a practising field botanist! I am also a Churchill Fellow (2001) and co-producer of the film Finding David Douglas

So why this blog?  Well, I'm writing this blog as a Commentary.  The Finding David Douglas team in the UK and Portland, Oregon have made a splendid film (link above) and I have recently published two articles in The Plantsman and The Garden - journals of the Royal Horticultural Society - about his death.

I'm now interested in his life - not so much his botanical and plant collecting life as his daily life.  What it was like to be David Douglas in the times and places he lived in.  What he wore, where he lived, what he ate, how he travelled, who he met; that sort of thing.  There will be no photos of him in situ as he died before photography, but there will likely be images of places he went to.

I've not done this before so I'm working through it as best I can.  I tried this first of all on Facebook, as a day-by-day travel through his 1823 expedition.  But Facebook isn't ideal - it's not a good medium for posting comments in a different voice or for simple presentational issues like text formatting, highlights etc.  So this blog is intended as:

• initially, a day-by-day examination, with questions which will seek input and answers, of his first 'proving' expedition to the east coast of the USA in 1823.
• a research tool - it will pose questions about Douglas and seek answers
• a history of the writing process. 

I hope you'll join me on this journey. I'll reply to all comments as soon as I can.

As Douglas himself may have said - Yours Aye!