After the Company had lost their China monopoly the class of ship that was built by the Greens, for instance, was composed of oak, greenheart and teak, and excellently constructed. Mr F. T. Bullen has written of such a ship, the Lion, which was launched in 1842 from the famous Blackwall yard. He tells us that this was the finest of all the great fleet that had been brought into being at that yard up to this date: how, decked with flags from stem to stern, with the sun glinting brightly on the rampant crimson lion that towered proudly on high from her stem, she glided down the way amid the thunder of cannon and the cheers of the spectators. She was afterwards given ten 18-pounders, with many muskets and boarding-pikes stowed away in a small armoury in the waist. This famous vessel, so characteristic of the best type of East Indiaman which succeeded the Company’s ships, was, in spite of her great size—as she was then regarded—far handier than any of those “billy-boys” which used to be such a feature of the Thames. “There was as much intriguing,” says Mr Bullen, “to secure a berth in the Lion for the outward or homeward passage as there was in those days for positions in the golden land she traded to. Men whose work in India was done spoke of her in their peaceful retirement on leafy English country-sides, and recalled with cronies ‘our first passage out in the grand old Lion.’ A new type of ship, a new method of propulsion, was springing up all round her. But whenever any of the most modern fliers forgathered with her upon the ocean highway, their crews felt their spirits rise in passionate admiration for the stately and beautiful old craft whose graceful curves and perfect ease seemed to be of the sea sui generis, moulded and caressed by the noble element into something of its own mobility and tenacious power.”
Like many other of the later-day East Indiamen, she was eventually taken off the route to India and ran to Australia with emigrants. With her quarter-galleries, her far-reaching head, her great, many-windowed stern, she would seem a curious kind of ship among twentieth-century craft. But she held her own even with the new steel clippers, and made the round voyage from Melbourne to London and back in five months and twenty days, including the time taken up in handling the two cargoes, finally being sold into the hands of the Norwegians, like many another fine British ship both before and since her time. The last act of her eventful life came when she crashed into a mountainous iceberg and smashed herself to pieces. It was a sad end to a ship that had begun so gloriously.
CHAPTER XVII
WAYS AND MEANS
There was a fixed rate of passage-money, and it was thought necessary to forbid the captains to charge passengers any sum above that specified for their rank. These were the respective rates, including the passage and accommodation at the captain’s table.
General officers in the Company’s service were charged for the passage from England £250, colonels or Gentlemen of Council £200, while lieutenant-colonels, majors, senior merchants, junior merchants and factors had to pay £150. Captains were charged £125. Writers in the Company’s service paid £110, subalterns the same, assistant-surgeons and cadets £95. If any of the two last mentioned proceeded to India in the third mate’s mess, the latter was not to demand more than £55 for the passenger’s accommodation. The money was paid direct to the paymaster of seamen’s wages at his pay office in London, who handed these respective sums over to the commander or third mate. In the case of military officers who were in his Majesty’s service and not in the East India Company’s army, the charges were slightly different. Thus general officers were charged £235, colonels £185, lieutenant-colonels and majors £135, captains and surgeons £110, subalterns and assistant-surgeons £95, for the voyage out.
For the homeward voyage the commanders of these East Indiamen were allowed to charge 2500 rupees from Bombay for lieutenant-colonels or majors, 2000 rupees for captains, and 1500 rupees for subalterns when returning to Europe, either on sick certificate or military duty, whether in his Majesty’s or the Company’s service. Regular East Indiamen were bound, if asked, to receive on board at least two of the above officers, and in this case the larboard third part of the captain’s great cabin, with the passage to the quarter-gallery, was to be apportioned off for their accommodation. In the case of an extra ship one such officer was bound to be carried if the commander were requested, and he was to be accommodated with a cabin on the starboard side, abaft the chief mate’s cabin, and abreast of the spirit-room. His cabin was to be not less than seven feet long and six feet wide. If the whole of one of his Majesty’s regiments were returning to England, the entire accommodation in the ship might be allotted as the Government in India deemed advisable, the sums for the officers being paid to the commander as just mentioned. Factors and writers homeward bound from Bombay were charged 2000 and 1500 rupees respectively.
Under no circumstance was a commander allowed to receive any gratuity above these sums, and to give effect to this he had to enter into a bond for £1000 before being sworn in. Similarly the third mate was equally forbidden to exact more than the sums mentioned under his category.
Some idea of the victuals which were carried on board a 1200-ton East Indiaman may be gathered from the following. Recollect that, of course, there was no such thing as preserved foods or refrigerating machinery in those days, but during these long voyages the passengers and crew were not pampered with the luxuries of a modern liner. The accommodation was lighted with candles and oil-lamps, the food was plain, the cooking very English. Beside the amounts which an Atlantic liner takes on board for her short voyage these figures seem insignificant: and there were none of those manifold articles for serving up the food in an appetising manner. For the strong, the healthy and vigorous, this plain, substantial living was all right: but for invalids, for delicate women, and for children naturally terrified of the sea and unable to settle down to life on board, the voyage was certainly not one long, delightful experience.