Hugh Gordon - short, but exciting life
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Currently I am working on a journal of Hugh Gordon, who served with the 1st foot Royal Scots. He died aged 36 in 1828. To my standard, very young. But reading his journal, he lived through a lot in a short time. I have not read the whole journal yet, but as far as I am now, I can tell that he served on a ship the Leopard, which was whipwrecked on the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. They barely made it out and try to survive on a island nearby, were they had to manage a big fire which could destroy their camp and provisions. During his stay on the island he was also witness to a solar eclipse.
Then he was saved from the island and while meeting his colleagues who were on another ship, the ships smashed together, but luckely didn't sink. And a few months later he suffered from brain fever and dysentery, which killed part of the crew. But he still survived. Amazing!
His journal can be read on the following webpage:
http://www.nam.ac.uk/online-collection/detail.php?acc=1996-04-173-8
