Archive Results For: East India Company
Some Danish Indiamen at the Cape of Good Hope
This provides a brief record of Danish ships stopping off at the Cape of Good Hope in 1775, during the golden period of Danish trade with India and China. One of these ships was seen there that year by Captain James Cook on his Second Voyage. Cook described the ship as an ‘Indiaman’ but it […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | American Revolution | Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Miscellaneous
The Wreck of the S.S. Sarah Sands: The Victoria Cross Warrant of 1858
The Sarah Sands was an auxiliary screw steamer launched in 1846 and designed to travel primarily under sail. By 1857, she was a well-worked ship but unsuited for use as a troopship. Nevertheless, the Indian Mutiny caused the ship to be hired to carry the 54th Regiment of Foot to India. A fire 800 miles […] Read More
Filed under: Mutiny & Discipline | Other (Nineteenth C) | Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Ship Handling & Seamanship
Parry of a Threat to India, 1768-1774
There was a very real threat to British interests in India. The frequent espionage between Britain and France motivated individuals in the British government to first increase than again reduce the Naval forces in India, thus alleviating the threat. It was a “cat and mouse” game between the two countries. Britain succeeded in protecting their […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Administration | Logistics | Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
The Wreck of the Dutch East Indiaman Amsterdam
This article summarizes the results of a physical (non-invasive) and documentary investigation of the Amsterdam, a Dutch East Indiaman, which foundered off the southeast coast of England, in 1749. The ship was part of the Dutch East India Company’s “Autumn fleet” comprised of 12 merchant ships bound for Batavia, Java. The Amsterdam’s maiden voyage, plagued […] Read More
Filed under: East India Company
Subjects include: Historic Vessels, Museums & Restoration
William Keeling and Hendrick Jansz. Craen: an Encounter at Sea in 1609
Demonstrates how vessels from the East India Company and the V.O.C. collaborated in seamanship despite the fierce commercial competition the two were engaged in. Using ships journals from Keeling and Craen de Booy shows how both captains worked collaboratively to return to Europe after the Hector and the Gelderland encountered each other off the coast […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Other (Early Modern) | Pacific | East India Company
Subjects include: Manpower & Life at Sea | Merchant Marines
British Surveys in the Chagos Archipelago and Attempts to Form a Settlement at Diego Garcia in the Late Eighteenth Century
A study of early British attempts to locate a naval base in the Indian Ocean outside the Indian subcontinent. The search was initiated by the East India Company’s Bombay administration in the 1770s in response to the French occupation of the Seychelles and focused on Diego Garcia. In 1785 a decision was taken to settle […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards | Navies | Science & Exploration | Strategy & Diplomacy
Hear Instruction and be Wise: The History of a Naval College on Java in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century
The calibre of Dutch seamen, particularly qualified navigators, was in a parlous position with the erosion of trade by foreign competition following the peace of Utrecht in 1713. In 1740 Gustav von Imhoff , a prominent member of the Dutch East India Company, proposed a system of education and a re-arrangement of the Company’s ships […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Eighteenth C) | Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Manpower & Life at Sea | Merchant Marines
The Voyage of the Pitt – a Turning Point in East India Navigation
In 1758-9 East India ship Pitt, under the command of Captain Wilson, sailed through Java and New Guinea, a route that had been closed to the British ships since 1623. The Pitt was more heavily built compared to other merchantmen as she served as an escort ship to convoys while carrying her cargo back to […] Read More
Filed under: Seven Years’ War | Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Science & Exploration
An East India Captain: the Early Career of Captain Richard Swanley
Biography of Richard Swanley an East India Company Captain, who wrote the detailed ship’s journal for the Jonas when it sailed under Captain Weddell in 1621. As Master of the James, Swanley participated in various actions, in 1625, against the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf under Botelho. Swanley commanded the East India fleet that sailed in […] Read More
Filed under: English Civil War | East India Company | Other (location)
Subjects include: Biography | Merchant Marines
Early Tonnage Measurement in England Part IV Rules Used by Shipwrights and Merchants
The fourth in the series, this article examines the plethora of rules used by shipwrights and merchants to calculate tonnage in England between the adoption of Baker’s Rule in 1605 and the Commissions and Acts that created commonality in the mid nineteenth century. It seeks to distinguish between those proposed and those actually were used […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Early Modern) | Other (Nineteenth C) | Other (Eighteenth C) | East India Company | Other (location)
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Shipbuilding & Design