BOURNE _ Bodktake-roe^ ^ p- a -uihile frono sordi iV into -the splendour ofi THE OLD EAST INDIAMEN BOOKS OF TRAVEL Demy^vo. Cloth Bindings. Allfully Illustrated THROUGH UNKNOWN NIGERIA By JOHN R. RAPHAEL. 155. net. A WOMAN IN CHINA By MARY GAHNT. 155. net. LIFE IN AN INDIAN OUTPOST By Major CASSERLY. izs. 6d. net. CHINA REVOLUTIONISED ByJ. S. THOMPSON. 125. 6d. net. NEW ZEALAND By Dr MAX HERZ. I2s. 6d. net. THE DIARY OF A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE By STANLEY PORTAL HYATT. i2s. 6d. net. OFF THE MAIN TRACK By STANLEY PORTAL HYATT. ias. 6d. net. WITH THE LOST LEGION IN NEW ZEALAND By Colonel G. HAMILTON-BROWNE (" Maori Browne"). I2S. 6d. net. ,^ A LOST LEGIONARY IN SOUTH AFRICA By Colonel G. HAMILTON-BROWNE ("Maori Browne"). I2s. 6d. net. SIAM By PIERRE LOTI. 7s. 6d. net. s 1 THE OLD EAST INDIAMEN BY E. KEBLE LieutemrfiTftN.V.R. '" Author of Sailing Ships and their Story, " ' " Do~Mn Channel in the Vtvette,' " ' " Through Holland in the Vivettc? " Ships and Ways ofOther Days" etc. ILLUSTRATED LONDON T. WERNER LAURIE LTD. 8 ESSEX STREET, STRAND CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGB I. INTRODUCTION ..... i II. THE MAGNETIC EAST . .10 III. THE LURE OF NATIONS . .18 IV. THE ROUTE TO THE EAST . .31 V. THE FIRST EAST INDIA COMPANY . 46 VI. CAPTAIN LANCASTER DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF . 64 VII. THE BUILDING OF THE COMPANY'S SHIPS . 77 VIII. PERILS AND ADVENTURES . .91 IX. SHIPS AND TRADE .... 106 X. FREIGHTING THE EAST INDIAMEN . .124 XI. EAST INDIAMEN AND THE ROYAL NAVY . 138 XII. THE WAY THEY HAD IN THE COMPANY'S SERVICE 152 XIII. THE EAST INDIAMEN'S ENEMIES . 166 XIV. SHIPS AND MEN ..... 180 XV. AT SEA IN THE EAST INDIAMEN . .198 XVI. CONDITIONS OF SERVICE .... 226 XVII. WAYS AND MEANS .... 248 XVIII. LIFE ON BOARD ..... 265 XIX. THE COMPANY'S NAVAL SERVICE 281 vi CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XX. OFFENCE AND DEFENCE . .291 XXI. THE " WARREN HASTINGS " AND THE " " Pl^MONTAISE .... 305 XXII. PIRATES AND FRENCH FRIGATES . 316 XXIII. THE LAST OF THE OLD EAST INDIAMEN . 329 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The East Indiaman Thomas Coutts . Frontispiece FACING PAGE The East India House .... .4 The Hon. East India Co.'s Ship General Goddard with H.M.S. Sceptre and Swallow capturing Dutch East Indiamen off St Helena ...... 12 The Essex East Indiaman at anchor in Bombay Harbour . 24 The East Indiaman Kent ...... 42 Dutch East Indiamen ...... 54 The launch of the Hon. East India Co.'s Ship Edinburgh . 78 India House, the Sale Room ..... 88 The Hon. East India Co.'s Ship Bridgewater entering Madras Roads ....... 96 The Halsewell East Indiaman . .104 The Seringapatam East Indiaman . .120 A Barque Free-trader in the London Docks . .130 The Press-Gang at Work . .140 The East Indiaman Swallow . .182 Commodore Sir Nathaniel Dance .... 190 Repulse of Admiral Linois by the China Fleet under Com- Sir . modore Nathaniel Dance . .196 A view of the East India Docks in the early igth Century . 210 The Thames East Indiaman ..... 218 The Windham East Indiaman sailing from St Helena . 224 in . The // and Eliza Jane Table Bay, 1829 . 236 The Alfred East Indiaman ..... 242 in . The East Indiaman Cruiser Panther Suez Harbour . 250 The East Indiaman Triton, rough sketch of stern . 256 The East Indiaman Earl Balcarres .... 262 Deck scene of the East Indiaman Triton . 266 The West Indiaman Thetis ..... 272 The Kent East fire in . Indiaman on the Bay of Biscay . 276 The Cambria brig receiving the last boat-load from the Kent . 282 The Vernon East Indiaman ..... 294 The Sibella East Indiaman ..... 306 The East . Indiaman Queen . .318 The East Indiaman Malabar, built of wood in 1860 . 330 The Blenheim East Indiaman ..... 340 vii PREFACE THE author desires to acknowledge the courtesy of Messrs T. H. Parker Brothers of Whitcomb Street, W.C., for allowing him to reproduce the illus- trations mentioned on many of the pages of this book as also the P. O. Steam ; & Navigation Company for permission to reproduce the old painting of the Swallow. Owing to the fact that the author is now away at sea serving under the White Ensign, it is hoped that this may be deemed a sufficient apology for any errata which may have been allowed to creep into the text. Vlll THE OLD EAST INDIAMEN CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION IN this volume I have to invite the reader to con- sider a special epoch of the world's progress, in which the sailing ship not only revolutionised British trade but laid the foundations of, and almost com- pleted, that imposing structure which is to-day represented by the Indian Empire. It is a period brimful of romance, of adventures, travel and the exciting pursuit after wealth. It is a theme which, for all its deeply human aspect, is one for ever dominated by a grandeur and irresistible destiny. With all its failings, the East India Company still remains in history as the most amazingly powerful trading concern which the world has ever seen. Like many other big propositions it began in a small way : but it acquired for us that vast continent which is the envy of all the great powers of the world to-day. And it is important and necessary to remember always that we owe this in the first place to the con- summate courage, patience, skill and long-suffering of that race of beings, the intrepid seamen, who have never yet received their due from the landsmen whom they have made rich and comfortable. Among the Harleian MSS. there is a delightful 2 THE OLD EAST INDIAMEN phrase written by a seventeenth-century writer, in which, treating of matters that are not immediately concerned with the present subject, he remarks very " quaintly that the first article of an Englishman's Politicall Creed must be that he believeth in ye Sea etc. Without that there needeth no general Council to pronounce him uncapable of Salvation." This somewhat sweeping statement none the less aptly sums up the whole matter of our colonisation and overseas development. The entire glamour of the Elizabethan period, marked as it unfortunately is with many deplorable errors, is derived from the sea. With the appreciation of what could be attained by a combination of stout ships, sturdy seamen, naviga- tion, seamanship, gunnery and high hopes that refused persistently to be daunted, the most far- sighted began to see that success was for them. Honours, wealth, the founding of families that should treasure their names in future generations, the acquisition of fine estates and the building of large houses with luxuries that exceeded the Tudor pattern these were the pictures which were con- jured up in the imaginations of those who vested their fortunes and often their lives in these ocean voyages. The call of the sea had in England fallen mostly on deaf ears until the late sixteenth century. It is only because there were some who listened to it, obeyed, and presently led others to do as they had done, that the British Empire has been built up at all. Our task, however, is to treat of one particular way in which that call has influenced the minds and activities of men. We are to see how that, if it summoned some across the Atlantic to the Spanish INTRODUCTION 3 Main, it sent others out to the Orient, yet always with the same object of acquiring wealth, establish- ing trade with strange peoples, and incidentally affording a fine opportunity for those of an adven- turous spirit who were unable any longer to endure the cramped and confined limitations of the neigh- bourhood in which they had been born and bred. And though, as we proceed with our story, we shall be compelled to watch the gradual growth and the vicissitudes of the East Indian companies, yet our object is to obtain a clear knowledge not so much of the latter as of the ships which they employed, the manner in which they were built, sailed, navi- " gated and fought. When we speak of the Old " East Indiamen we mean of course the ships which used to carry the trade between India and Europe. And inasmuch as this trade was, till well on into the nineteenth century, the valuable and exclusive mono- poly of the East India Company, carefully guarded against any interlopers, our consideration is prac- tically that of the Company's ships. After the Company lost their monopoly to India, their ships still possessed the monopoly of trading with China until the year 1833. After that date the Company sold the last of their fleet which had made them famous as a great commercial and political concern. In their place a number of new private firms sprang up, who bought the old ships from the East India Company, and even built new ones for the trade. These were very fine craft and acted as links between England and the East for a few years longer, reach- ing their greatest success between the years 1850 and 1870. But the opening of the Suez Canal and the enterprise of steamships sealed their fate, so that 4 THE OLD EAST INDIAMEN instead of the wealth which was obtained during those few years by carrying cargoes of rich merchan- dise between the East and the West, and transport- ing army officers, troops and private passengers, there was little or no money to be made by going round the Cape. Thus the last of the Indiamen sailing ships passed away became coal-hulks, were broken their up ; or, changing name and nationality, sailed under a Scandinavian flag. The East India Company rose from being a private venture of a few enterprising merchants to become a gigantic corporation of immense political power, with its own governors, its own cavalry, artillery and infantry, its own navy, and yet with its " trade-monopoly and its unsurpassed regular ser- " vice of merchantmen.