The Old East Indiamen

by E. Keble Chatterton

During the course of every watch the ship was to be pumped out, and entries made in the log. And as regards divine worship, the slackness of the previous period mentioned in an earlier chapter was no longer tolerated. “You are strictly required to keep up the worship of Almighty God on board your ship every Sunday, when circumstances will admit, and that the log-book contain the reasons for the omission when it so happens; that you promote good order and sobriety, by being yourself the example, and enforcing it in others; and that you be humane and attentive to the welfare of those under your command, the Court have resolved to mulct you in the sum of two guineas for every omission of mentioning the performance of divine service, or assigning satisfactory reasons for the non-performance thereof every Sunday, in the Company’s log-book.”

From the Company’s India House in Leadenhall Street the commander was supplied with charts. These had to be returned at the end of the voyage, together with the commander’s journals and track charts. What were known as free mariners must have performed two voyages to India or China and back in the Company’s ships, or else have used the sea and been in actual service for at least three years. The reader is aware that many a time the Company’s ships were endangered by the naval authorities impressing so many men from them. At last, after many protests, the Admiralty instituted a new regulation, so that, although it was still not possible to abolish this impressment, yet the evil so far as the East Indiamen were concerned was mitigated and controlled. A letter was sent to the Rear-Admiral of the Red on the East Indies station instructing him to order his captains and commanders to conform to this new regulation. A proper scheme was drawn up, showing what officers and men in East Indiamen ships of varying tonnages were to be exempt from impress, though this protection applied only until the ship should reach Europe. However, even if the whole exemption could not be obtained, a portion thereof was better than nothing at all, especially as the Company attributed so many of the losses of their ships to having been deprived of their best men.

In addition to their wages, the men became entitled to a pension from what was known as the Poplar Fund. Any commander, officer or seaman, or anyone else who had served aboard any of these East Indiamen for eight years and regularly contributed to this fund was entitled to a pension. But if a man had been wounded or maimed so as to be rendered incapable of further service at sea, he could still be admitted to a pension even under eight years. The size of the pension was based on the amount of capital which the officer possessed. Thus, if a commander stated that he was not worth £2500, or £125 a year, he received a pension of £100. Similarly, if a chief mate had not been able to amass £1300, or had £65 coming in every year, he was granted a pension of £60. And so the scale descended down to the rank of midshipman, who was granted a £12 pension if he was not worth £400, or £20 a year. Allowances were also made for the widows and orphans of those who had served the Company for seven years.

Before a candidate could be appointed as ship’s surgeon, those who had already made one voyage in the Company’s service, or acted twelve months in that capacity in his Majesty’s service in a hot climate were given priority. After a qualified surgeon had served in one of the extra ships for one voyage to India and back he was eligible for the regular service. Both surgeon and a surgeon’s mate had to produce a certificate from the examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons and also from the Company’s own physician. The surgeons were allowed, in addition to their salary and their privilege of private trade, fifteen shillings per man on the voyage for medicine and attendance on the military and invalids. But they were no longer required, as part of their duties, to cut the hair of the Company’s servants! The assistant-surgeon had to be at least twenty years old, and possess a diploma from the College of Surgeons of London, Edinburgh or Dublin, and a certificate from the Company’s own physician.

The gunner and his mate were examined as to their efficiency by the Company’s master-attendant, who after approval gave them a certificate. Volunteers for the Company’s Indian Navy, otherwise known as the Bombay Marine, had to be between the ages of fourteen and eighteen; for their cavalry and infantry, between sixteen and twenty-two.

To many passengers this voyage to the East was one of terror. Eastwick tells a yarn about an assistant-surgeon in one of these ships. For five days on the way out a great storm had been raging. This had evidently so impressed this surgeon that the night after the storm abated he dreamt that there was a great hole in the ship’s side. Jumping out of his cot with alacrity, he knocked over the water-jug, and feeling the cold water about his toes he ran headlong up on deck, clamouring that the ship was sinking. For some time he was believed. The carpenter and some of the officers hurried to his cabin, and meanwhile the passengers had become alarmed and left their cabins, congregating by the boats. The story, however, does not give the remarks of the carpenter and officers when they found the assistant-surgeon had been romancing.

The passengers in these ships were made as comfortable as possible, though they had to pay fairly heavily for the same. We have seen that they were entertained with dances whenever possible. They brought with them on board their servants, their furniture and their wines. But the conduct of some of these passengers became so highly improper at times that the Company found it necessary to frame regulations for the preservation of good order on board, and these had to be enforced strictly by the commander. In the words of the Court of Directors, they bewailed the fact that “the good order and wholesome practices, formerly observed in the Company’s ships, have been laid aside, and late hours and the consequent mischiefs introduced, by which the ship has been endangered and the decorum and propriety, which should be maintained, destroyed.”

One of the great terrors on board these vessels was the possibility of fire at sea. We shall have the account presently of the loss of the Kent East Indiaman in the Bay of Biscay, through that species of disaster, in the year 1825, and there were other instances. It was in order to guard against this possibility that no fire was allowed to be kept in after eight at night except for the use of the sick, and then only in a stove. Candles had to be extinguished between decks by nine o’clock, and in the cabins by ten at the latest. This was before the days when ships were compelled by Act of Parliament to carry sidelights. In fact, just as in mediæval days not even the boatswain was allowed to use his whistle, nor a bell to be sounded, nor any unnecessary noise made after dark, lest the ship’s presence should be betrayed to any pirate in the vicinity, so in the case of these East Indiamen, not only were there no sidelights, but the commander was enjoined that the utmost precautions be used to prevent any lights ‘tween decks or from the cabins being visible “to any vessel passing in the night.”

THE “ALFRED,” EAST INDIAMAN, 1,400 TONS.
(By courtesy of Messrs. T. H. Parker Brothers)