Ships
Ships of the East India Company were called East Indiamen or simply "Indiamen". Some examples include:
- Red Dragon (1595)
- Doddington (East Indiaman) Lost 1755
- Royal Captain (before 1773)
- HMS Grosvenor Lost 1782
- General Goddard (1782)
- Earl of Abergavenny (1797)
- Earl of Mornington (1799); packet ship
- Lord Nelson (1799)
- Kent (1825): Lost on her maiden voyage
- Nemesis (1839): first British built ocean-going iron warship
- Agamemnon (1855)
During the period of the Napoleonic Wars, the East India Company arranged for letters of marque for its vessels such as the Lord Nelson. This was not so that they could carry cannons to fend off warships, privateers and pirates on their voyages to India and China (that they could do without permission) but so that, should they have the opportunity to take a prize, they could do so without being guilty of piracy. Similarly, the Earl of Mornington, an East India Company packet ship of only six guns too sailed under a letter of marque.
The company also had its own navy, the Bombay Marine, equipped with warships such as the Grappler. These vessels often accompanied vessels of the Royal Navy on expeditions, such as the Invasion of Java (1811).
At the Battle of Pulo Aura, which was probably the company's most notable naval victory, Nathaniel Dance, Commodore of a convoy of Indiamen and sailing aboard the Warley, led several Indiamen in a skirmish with a French squadron, driving them off. Some six years earlier, on 28 January 1797, five Indiamen, the Woodford, under Captain Charles Lennox, the Taunton-Castle, Captain Edward Studd, Canton, Captain Abel Vyvyan, and Boddam, Captain George Palmer, and Ocean, Captain John Christian Lochner, had encountered Admiral de Sercey and his squadron of frigates. On this occasion the Indiamen also succeeded in bluffing their way to safety, and without any shots even being fired. Lastly, on 15 June 1795, the General Goddard played a large role in the capture of seven Dutch East Indiamen off St Helena.
The HEIC's ships were well built, with the result that the Royal Navy bought several Company ships to convert to warships and transports. The Earl of Mornington became HMS Drake. Other examples include:
- HMS Calcutta (1795)
- HMS Glatton (1795)
- HMS Hindostan (1795)
- HMS Hindostan (1804)
- HMS Malabar (1804)
- HMS Buffalo (1813)
Read more about this topic: Honourable East India Company
Famous quotes containing the word ships:
“I have seen old ships sail like swans asleep”
—James Elroy Flecker (1884–1919)
“I saw three ships come sailing by,
Come sailing by, come sailing by,
I saw three ships come sailing by,
On Christmas Day in the morning.”
—Unknown. As I Sat on a Sunny Bank. . .
Oxford Book of Light Verse, The. W. H. Auden, ed. (1938)
“Give blue-eyed men their swivel chairs
To whirl in tall buildings.
Allow them many ships at sea,
And on land, soldiers
And policemen.”
—Arna Bontemps (1902–1973)