The Old East Indiamen

by E. Keble Chatterton

“Saturday 3rd.... Employed taking in shot on account of the Honble. Compy. and 45 tons of kentledge for the ship, and also some small stores, filling water etc. Clapt a mooring service on the best bower. 2nd, 4th and 6th officers on board.”

On the following Monday the ship took in a quantity of copper as well as sundry stores. On the Tuesday she shipped three new cables, her pitch, tar and chandlery stores. On the Wednesday she saw to her anchors and bent on her cables. On the Thursday her pilot came aboard and took her down the river as far as Gravesend. And finally—to skip over the ensuing weeks—after leaving the Thames and the Isle of Wight, she had to put in to Torbay, quitting the latter not till 13th January 1793. The setting forth of ships was thus a very leisurely, slow business as compared with the dispatch that attends the modern liner.

The tea which came in these ships was disposed of at the quarterly sales, the duty being paid thirty days later. Some idea of the length of time these vessels were away from home may be gathered from one or two voyages at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Thus, the 1200-ton Glatton left the Downs for China on 29th March 1802, proceeded to China, disposed of her cargo, took on board a fresh one, and was back at her moorings in the Thames by 24th April of the following year. Another ship, the Marquis of Ely (whose managing owner was Mr Robert Wigram, a name that became famous during the clipper period), also of 1200 tons, left Portsmouth on 20th March 1804, proceeded to Ceylon and China, transacted her business, and was back at her moorings in the Thames on 12th September of the following year. Some of the smaller vessels made good voyages too, when we consider that these ships were not well designed nor built with the kind of hull that makes for speed. Their first object was to carry safely a large amount of cargo, rather than to get a small cargo home in the quickest time. Thus, the 600-ton ship Devaynes left Portsmouth on 17th September 1808 for Bombay, loaded and unloaded and was back at moorings on 6th July 1810. The General Stuart, of the same tonnage, left Portsmouth on the same day and was back in the Thames on 16th April 1810. These passages may be conveniently compared with the hustling days of sixty or seventy years later, when the famous China clipper Ariel made her record passage out to China. Leaving Gravesend on 14th October 1866, she arrived in Hong Kong the following 6th of January and was back again in the Thames on 23rd September.

The East India Company had their agents in different ports, both at home and abroad, and it is worth mentioning in passing that the Company’s agent at Halifax a few years later on in the century—that is to say, about the year 1830—was that Samuel Cunard who was afterwards to found the great line of Atlantic steamships which still bear his name.

It was in the year 1814 that a most momentous development occurred. Ever since the time of Elizabeth the East India Company had possessed this wonderful monopoly of trading to the East. In spite of the march of time, in spite of all the improvements in commerce and the development of the world, in spite of the spread of industrialism and the growing demands of democracy, in spite of all the vast sums of money which had been on the aggregate extracted from the East, in spite, finally, of the many abuses of which the East India Company or its servants had been guilty, this exclusive privilege of trade had been withheld for over two centuries from the other persons or corporations of the kingdom.

But now all this was banished. For a long time merchant enterprise had realised that Eastern trade would be extended, and that considerably, if it were thrown open and competition were allowed to have its way. So in the year mentioned the monopoly was done away with as regards India. The British public were henceforth allowed to trade with that country unconditionally, except that it must be done in vessels of not less than 350 tons. But China was reserved as the exclusive trading preserve of the East India Company, and the Company still retained the control of the supply of tea, which had become now a common article of consumption, and therefore the importing of this commodity was of great value to this ancient corporation.

It was not without a great effort that the Indian monopoly was done away with. This was a time when the interests of private individuals in high power were considered even more than they would be to-day. The character of social life has changed a great deal since then, so that it is not immediately easy to appreciate the revolutionary nature of this change from a close preserve, strictly guarded for many a generation, to become an open area common to all and sundry of the British nation. The merchants of Manchester, Bristol and Glasgow had been agitating for years: now at last the desired object had been attained. All sorts of arguments were spoken and printed concerning the reasons on behalf of the monopoly. Some of these were utterly ridiculous, and obviously not sufficiently disinterested to appear sincere. The argument of the monopolists was largely of the kind which says practically: “You may not like it, but allow us to tell you that it is really all for your good that we want the monopoly ourselves.” Merchants outside the Company were too wide-awake to see it in that light. And when this monopoly was removed in 1814, what was the result?

The result was this. As soon as the barrier was thrown down, private shipowners entered, and a number of excellent ships were built for the voyages to India and back. Commerce received a great impetus, and eventually (as had been foreseen) the private traders gained ascendancy over the East India Company, and the trade with India became trebled. The effect of this new element of competition was to cause a reduction in the average rate of freights per ton. The East India Company had been paying £40 a ton for their ships, while better ships could be built and equipped for £25 a ton. By the year 1830 the cost of freights from India to England had dropped to £10 a ton. There can be no doubt that the Company had been managing their affairs with too little regard to economy. Their ships were fitted up with too much expense for the passengers. They were paying £40 a ton as against £25 paid by other traders. The East India Company’s ships carried much larger crews than other ships. The former used to have one man to every ten or twelve tons, though the ships engaged in the West Indian trade carried one man to every twenty-five tons. And whilst we are making comparisons let us show how much beamier these East Indiamen were. Four beams to the length was their rule, as compared with five or six beams to the length in the case of the famous Clyde and American clippers which were to come after. To-day in the twentieth century the biggest Atlantic liners have between nine and ten beams to their length. It should be mentioned at the same time that these East Indiamen had necessarily to carry large numbers of men because they must needs be well armed to fight their enemies on an equal footing. But the long years of warfare were now giving way to peace, and instead there was to come a century of industrial progress, invention and commercial development. Privateers, hostile ships, pirates—these were to be withdrawn, and simultaneously the need for arming merchantmen disappeared. It is only quite recently, with the Anglo-German tension, that our merchant ships have begun to be armed again on any extensive scale.

The abolition of the monopoly gave a new impetus to British shipbuilding, and the firm of Scotts, of Greenock, turned out some fine vessels for the East, such as the Christian, launched in 1818, the Bellfield of 478 register tons—the latter being built in 1820. Both these ships were for the London-Calcutta trade. The Company were of course still trading to India and China, and among the ships which they owned or hired about the last-mentioned date may be mentioned the following. Their biggest ship, then, was the Lowther Castle, of 1507 tons. She was built in the year 1811, carried 26 guns and 130 men. Another fine ship was the Earl of Balcarres, built at Bombay in 1815. She had the same number of men and guns as the Lowther Castle, though of 1417 tons register. Such a vessel was ship-rigged with three masts, triangular headsails and stuns’ls. Still unable to get away from the mediæval influence, the jibboom was “steeved” very high. With her rows of square ports, her figurehead, her enormous anchors, which were stowed over the side by the fore rigging, she was very similar to a British man-of-war of that period. Boat-davits had now come into use, and a boat was thus hung on each quarter.

Contemporary manuscript records of the late eighteenth-century Company’s ships show them wearing a long pennant at one mast and a square flag at another. Each of the East Indiamen ships in a convoy would have its own distinguishing pennant. Sometimes this was flown at the main with a square flag at the fore, at other times you find a ship with the square flag at the mizen and the pennant at the fore. And a most elaborate code of signals both for day and night was provided for use between the flagship and the respective units.