The 163-year-old diary of the maritime adventures of a Scottish sailor has been published online. The story of George Henry Scott Douglas, originally from Kelso, is recounted as a blog about life on his ship, theVampire.

The blog, which tells the tales of the 20-year-old as he takes his ship to the Greek islands, Athens, the Turkish coast and on to Istanbul, is based on material from the Scott Douglas collection held by the Heart of Hawick’s Heritage Hub, in Hawick in the Scottish Borders.

Scott Douglas was a young Borderer who was stationed with the 34th Regiment of Foot in Corfu before he acquired his cutter,Vampire. The online journal, Voyage of the Vampire , covers the period April 1846 to January 1847. The text carries links to maps and ‘notes’, and scanned pages from the original diary are displayed on the website.

The collection was given to the Heritage Hub by historian Ian Abernethy who discovered the papers. He said that he was delighted to find the work would now be taken to a ‘world-wide audience’.