Monday 9th May 1853

By noon this day our run had been 207 miles in less than 23 hours, the greatest we had had since the breaking of the shaft. Probably there had been a current in our favour. Immediately after sunset we had the first view of the new moon, very faint in the western sky, not far above the horizon. In the evening one of the ships officers brought us a flying fish which had been found in one of the cabins near the paddle boxes: it had flown in there through the open porthole probably attracted by the paddlebox light above it, the occurrence not being a singular one. It was a fish about the size and colour of a small herring, straighter and rounder with the two side fins much elongated, a this membrane being stretched between the ribs of the fins, serving the purpose of temporary wings.

The full journal will soon be published by Annet House Museum, Linlithgow. Waldie's journey to India forms a key feature of the museum's Waldie exhibition.