The gunner and his mate were examined as to their efficiency by the Company’s master-attendant, who after approval gave them a certificate. Volun241teers for the Company’s Indian Navy, otherwise known as the Bombay Marine, had to be between the ages of fourteen and eighteen; for their cavalry and infantry, between sixteen and twenty-two dermes .
To many passengers this voyage to the East was one of terror. Eastwick tells a yarn about an assistant-surgeon in one of these ships. For five days on the way out a great storm had been raging. This had evidently so impressed this surgeon that the night after the storm abated he dreamt that there was a great hole in the ship’s side. Jumping out of his cot with alacrity, he knocked over the water-jug, and feeling the cold water about his toes he ran headlong up on deck, clamouring that the ship was sinking. For some time he was believed. The carpenter and some of the officers hurried to his cabin, and meanwhile the passengers had become alarmed and left their cabins, congregating by the boats. The story, however, does not give the remarks of the carpenter and officers when they found the assistant-surgeon had been romancing.
The passengers in these ships were made as comfortable as possible, though they had to pay fairly heavily for the same. We have seen that they were entertained with dances whenever possible. They brought with them on board their servants, their furniture and their wines. But the conduct of some of these passengers became so highly improper at times that the Company found it necessary to frame regulations for the preservation of good order on board, and these had to be enforced strictly by the commander. In the words of the Court of Directors, they bewailed the fact that the good order and wholesome practices, formerly observed in the Com242pany’s ships, have been laid aside, and late hours and the consequent mischiefs introduced, by which the ship has been endangered and the decorum and propriety, which should be maintained, destroyed.”
One of the great terrors on board these vessels was the possibility of fire at sea. We shall have the account presently of the loss of the Kent East Indiaman in the Bay of Biscay, through that species of disaster, in the year 1825, and there were other instances. It was in order to guard against this possibility that no fire was allowed to be kept in after eight at night except for the use of the sick, and then only in a stove. Candles had to be extinguished between decks by nine o’clock, and in the cabins by ten at the latest. This was before the days when ships were compelled by Act of Parliament to carry sidelights. In fact, just as in medi?val days not even the boatswain was allowed to use his whistle, nor a bell to be sounded, nor any unnecessary noise made after dark, lest the ship’s presence should be betrayed to any pirate in the vicinity, so in the case of these East Indiamen, not only were there no sidelights, but the commander was enjoined that the utmost precautions be used to prevent any lights ‘tween decks or from the cabins being visible to any vessel passing in the night.”
THE ALFRED,” EAST INDIAMAN, 1,400 TONS dermes .
(By courtesy of Messrs. T. H. Parker Brothers)
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The passengers used to dine not later than 2 P.M. And such was the authority of the captain that when he retired from the table after either dinner or supper, the passengers and officers must also retire. The captain was to pay due attention to the comfortable accommodation and liberal treatment of the passengers, at the same time setting them an example of sobriety and decorum, as he values the243 pleasure of the Court.” Any improper conduct of the ship’s officers towards the passengers or to each other was to be reported quietly to the captain, and the decision left with the latter. But if anyone thought himself aggrieved thereby, he could appeal to the Governor and Council of the first of the Company’s settlements at which the ship should arrive, or, if homeward bound, to the Court of Directors.
