Journal kept by Surgeon Robert Arthur Simpson on the iron screw frigate HMS RALEIGH (1873) and then the wooden screw corvette HMS WOLVERINE (1863), between December 1879 and September 1881.

The journal begins with a voyage from Plymouth to Sydney on the RALEIGH between 21 February 1880 and 17 June 1880, including a visit to Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean. The later parts cover cruises in the southwest Pacific on the WOLVERINE between 17 July 1880 and 26 September 1881. The volume also contains notes which include questions in anatomy, types of plants supplying substances used in medical practice, and preparations for the use of opium and morphia.