On the whole, it will be seen that every officer and petty officer of an East Indiaman, whether trading to India or China, had the opportunity of putting by very handsome perquisites, and so you can now easily believe Eastwick’s statement that a purser friend of his had retired and bought a ship for himself. But, of course, in addition to all these “privileges,” everyone received his salary or wages. The following is a list of the monthly pay to the commander, officers, petty officers, “tradesmen” (i.e. coopers and the like), and the able-bodied seamen, called foremast men. It will be found that this makes up a complement of 102 men, such as were employed in one of the big regular East Indiamen. The pay in the case of “extra” ships will be given after this list:—
Monthly Pay on Board a Regular East Indiaman
In the case of an “extra” ship the commander received £10 a month, the chief mate £5, the second mate £4, the third mate £3, 10s., the surgeon £5, the boatswain £3, 10s., the gunner £3, 10s., the carpenter £4, 10s., the two midshipmen were paid £2, 5s. each, the cooper and steward got £3, the captain’s cook £3, 5s., the ship’s cook £2, 10s., the boatswain’s mate and the gunner’s mate were each paid £2, 10s., the carpenter’s mate and caulker £3, 15s., the two quartermasters received each £2, 10s., the two commander’s servants £1, 5s. each, and the thirty foremast men £2, 5s. each. As to the last-mentioned, a vessel of from 400 to 500 tons carried twenty foremast hands. A ship of 500 to 550 had thirty hands, and the next size, from 550 to 600 tons, carried thirty-five. A 600 to 650 tonner had forty men, and a 650 to 700 tonner forty-five men. But a 700 to 800 ton ship had fifty-five men, and an 800 to 900 tonner sixty-five of these hands. The Company’s rule was that regular vessels of 750 to 800 tons were to carry a total complement of 101 officers and men. A 900-ton ship was to carry 110 men, a 1000-ton ship 120 men, a 1100-ton ship 125 men, and a 1200-tonner 130 men.
Five supernumeraries were allowed to be carried, of whom two were to be allowed to walk the quarterdeck. No commander was allowed to increase the number of midshipmen under pain of being suspended for three years. This was to prevent him from taking a raw young officer out of consideration for a monetary reward. In order to act as a safeguard, if any person borne on the ship’s books as part of her complement were discharged in India, China or St Helena without permission of the Company, or if the commander were to act in collusion and allow him to quit his vessel, the commander was liable to a fine of £300. Nor could he bring home or carry out any passenger or person without the directors’ leave.
Owing to the fact that the men out of these East Indiamen were so frequently pressed into the British men-of-war whilst in the East, it was often enough necessary to ship a lot of lascars in order to get the vessel home at all. But these feeble-bodied men were accustomed only to voyages of short duration, and that in the fine weather season. They could not bear the cold, neither were they dependable when the East Indiaman had to defend herself against a privateer, pirate or enemy’s warship. Ignorant of the English language, they were not easy to handle. It was always reckoned that eighty or ninety of them were not quite the equal of fifty British seamen, and for every hundred of them employed four British seamen must be also. It was the India-built ships which were manned almost exclusively by these lascars, and a new problem arose, for these fellows used to remain behind in England, where their condition became piteous. There was an obligation that these lascars were always to be sent back to India, but in practice many of them “are turned off in London, where they beg and perish.” So wrote Macpherson in 1812. “The appearance of these miserable creatures,” he remarked, “in the streets of London frequently excites the indignation of passengers against the Company, who, they suppose, bring them to this country and leave them destitute,” whereas, in reality, these Easterns actually preferred to sink into degradation in our land rather than return to their own. Many of them never reached England, or, if they did, died on the return voyage: for the bad weather off the Cape of Good Hope and the rigours of the English climate caused considerable sickness and death.
English gentlemen who had been for some years under the Company in India, either in a civil or military capacity, were often wont to bring black servants home with them, and after these servants had been some time in England they were discharged. The result was that, under the terms of their obligation, the Company were put to great expense in sending them back to their native country. It was with a view to protecting themselves from this possibility that the Company used to cause the master of such a servant to take a bond in India as security for the cost of returning these coloured people, these bonds being sent to the commander of the ship in which the master and his servant was travelling to England. Otherwise, the commander was ordered by the Company to refuse to have the black man on board.
Before an officer could become commander of one of the Company’s ships it was necessary that he should be twenty-five years old and have performed a voyage to and from India or China in the Company’s regular service as chief or second mate, or else have commanded a ship in the extra service. A chief mate had to be twenty-three years old, have voyaged to India or China in the Company’s service as second or third mate. A second mate had to be twenty-two years old and have made a similar voyage as third mate. To become a third mate he had to be aged twenty-one and been two voyages in the Company’s service to and from India or China. A fourth mate had to be twenty years old and been one voyage of not less than twenty months to India or China and back in the Company’s service, and one year in actual service in any other employ, and of the latter he had to produce satisfactory certificates.
In the case of the extra ships the commander had to be twenty-three years old at least, have made three voyages to India or China and back in the Company’s service, one of which must have been as chief or second mate in a regular ship, or as chief mate in an extra ship. The chief mate must be at least twenty-two, and have made two of these voyages as officer in the Company’s regular service. The second mate had to be at least twenty-one and have performed two voyages as officer in the Company’s service to India or China and back. The third mate must be twenty years and been one voyage in the Company’s service, or two voyages as midshipman in the extra service.
It would not be untrue to say that officers of the early part of the nineteenth century in this service were excellent seamen and fair navigators, but many of them would not be sufficiently expert in navigation nowadays to have entrusted to them the work and responsibilities commensurate with those with which they were charged. It was in the year 1804 that the Company issued the following regulation:—