The memoirs were written by John M'Kie for his son, Dr Norman J M'Kie, and cover the period from his early life to about 1870. The son of a tenant farmer in Kirkcudbrightshire, he took up engineering and worked in Dundee, Liverpool and Crewe before joining the navy in 1847. He served in HMS Rattler, suppressing the West African slave trade, and in the royal yacht 'Victoria and Albert', before being appointed Chief Engineer in HMS Hawke on the Irish coastguard service in 1855. He later served in HMS Achilles and HMS Sultan before retiring to Kirkcudbright in about 1870. The memoirs end with a visit to the United States and Canada following a railway accident. There are descriptions of his work as a naval engineer as well as of places and events.