The number of ships employed by the Company varied now quite as much as in former years. In the “season” of 1809-10 they despatched to their different stations in Bengal, Madras, Bombay, China, Ceylon, and Penang forty-seven ships, measuring thirty-two thousand five hundred tons; and in the season of 1819-20 twenty-three vessels, measuring twenty-six thousand two hundred tons, besides twenty-one vessels which they had chartered, of ten thousand nine hundred and forty-eight tons; whereas, in 1829-30 they only despatched twenty ships belonging to or permanently engaged by the Company, and twelve which they had chartered.[378]
Earl of Balcarras.
Her crew.
Actions fought by the ships of the Company.
On the following page we furnish an illustration of another of the largest and finest vessels belonging to the Company. This ship, the Earl of Balcarras, built in 1815, registered one thousand four hundred and seventeen tons, and was manned by a crew of one hundred and thirty men, consisting of the commander, six mates, a surgeon and his assistant, six midshipmen, purser, boatswain, gunner, carpenter, master-at-arms, armourer, butcher, baker, poulterer, caulker, cooper, two stewards, two cooks, eight boatswains, gunner’s, carpenter’s, caulker’s, and cooper’s mates, six quartermasters, one sail-maker, seven servants appropriated to the commander and leading officers, and seventy-eight seamen. The crews of ships of from eight hundred to thirteen hundred tons register varied from one hundred and two to one hundred and thirty men, or nearly four times the number required for merchant sailing-vessels of similar size of the present day. But the vessels of the East India Company combined many of the requisites of ships of war, and gained numberless laurels in many a gallant and hard-fought action.[379]
EAST INDIA COMPANY’S SHIP ‘EARL OF BALCARRAS.’
Conditions of entering the service.
Uniforms.
Five supernumeraries beyond the crew were allowed to each ship, two of whom had the privilege of appearing on the quarter-deck. Penalties were inflicted for taking on board persons without the permission in writing of the Company’s agents, varying from 20l. for a black servant, up to 500l. for a European; and bonds had to be given by all passengers bringing native servants from India to bear their expense while in England, and the cost of their return to that country. Every commander in the Company’s service was required to be at least twenty-five years of age, and to have performed, before receiving his appointment as such, one voyage in the regular service of the Company as chief or second officer, or to have commanded a ship in the extra service. Chief mates were required to be twenty-three years of age or upwards, and to have made a voyage as second or third mate in the service to and from India or China; second mates must also have performed a similar voyage, and were not eligible unless they were twenty-two years of age. Third mates were required to be twenty-one, and to have made two voyages as midshipmen or otherwise in the Company’s service, whilst the fourth mate must have reached the age of twenty years, and been a voyage to or from India and China in a Company’s ship, or in that of any other service, of which he had to produce satisfactory certificates. Their uniform, in the case of a commander, consisted, when in full dress, of a blue coat, black velvet lappels, cuffs and collar, with a bright gold embroidery “as little expensive as may be;” waistcoat and breeches of deep buff; the buttons were of yellow-gilt metal, with the Company’s crest; cocked-hats, side-arms, “to be worn under the coat,” and black stocks or neckcloths; while the undress consisted of blue coat with lappels, black collar and cuffs, waistcoat and breeches deep-buff, and buttons similar to the full-dress suit.