Monday 11 January 2016

10 JANUARY 1736 NAVAL DOCKYARD MUMBAI (BOMBAY) STARTED

Bible.
Fire TempleAbout 600 Parsis settled on the land given to them by the Rana in Sanjan. Throughout their journey from Persia they had kept alive their sacred fire. Using this fire they built a fire temple in nearby Udvada. This fire still burns unextinguished for over thirteen centuries; it has been the source of the fire that burns in all the fire temples throughout India, and many other parts of the world, including the United States.
The fire temple also had a school nearby, for the Parsis believed that learning was essential toward leading the good life. Hygiene was also emphasized since cleanliness was considered a virtue for good health. Though the fire temple could only be used by the Parsis, the school was opened to Hindus and others. It was the beginning of a symbiotic relationship that has lasted in harmony for lo these many years.
Economically the Parsis flourished. For many generations in Persia they had been successful farmers and they succeeded as agriculturists in India. The Persian civilization, combined with the Greek influence, had taught the Parsis the healing arts and they became successful doctors. The ships they sailed on to reach India opened to the Parsis the bounties of the seas. At the height of their power under Darius, Zoroastrians had mastered shipbuilding and learned much from the sea faring Phoenicians. The ability to build seafaring vessels eventually opened up the world of international trade. Trade, an entrepreneurial spirit and their reputation for honesty, brought them great prosperity. This in turn led to the founding of many industries. By the time India achieved its independence in 1947, a mere hundred thousand Parsis in the subcontinent’s population of over half a billion, dominated the steel industry, the aviation industry, the textile industry, the movie industry, and the fields of medicine, science and law. They had a reputation for philanthropy second to none and even today many charities bear Parsi names.
My ancestors for example, established a Wadia College, a Wadia Institute of Technology, a Wadia Cardiology Hospital, a Wadia Fire Temple, and countless other educational, medical and religious charities. Though the Wadia fame and fortune came from many sources, such as textiles, movies and medicine, their original renown came from the shipbuilding enterprise and international trade.
Wadia, Nussarwanji ManeckjiThe Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts has evidence of members of the Wadia family trading with the United States as early as 1799 and visiting Salem around 1850. Since 1803 the portrait of Nusserwanjee Maneckjee Wadia had been displayed at this museum almost continuously for nearly two hundred years. There is also a statue of this sailor-merchant, presently stored for safekeeping in this museum, that was once prominently displayed.
The Wadias were master shipbuilders. Originally they built and repaired ships in the port of Surat. The British acquired Bombay from the Portuguese under the ‘Treaty of Marriage of 1662’. A century later shipbuilding and ship repairs gradually shifted from Surat to this larger natural port. In July 1750, a major dry dock and shipbuilding facility was completed under the supervision of Lowjee Nusserwanjee Wadia.
The Wadias built many ships, for the British Navy, for trade and for war. Even Lord Nelson sang the praises of the ships built in Bombay. But the one ship that the Wadias built which fills my heart with special fervor, was the H.M.S. Minden. It clearly established the Wadias as master shipbuilders, second to none in design, craftsmanship, speed and durability of their many vessels.
The following has been extracted from The Bombay Courier, dated June 23, 1810, regarding this great ship:
“On Tuesday last His Majesty’s Ship, the “Minden” of 74 guns, built in the new docks of this Presidency by Jamsetjee Bomanjee Wadia was floated into the stream at high water, after the usual ceremony of breaking the bottle had been performed by the Honourable Governor Jonathan Duncan.
In having produced the “Minden”, Bombay is entitled to the distinguished praise of providing the first and only British ship of the line built out of the limits of the Mother Country; and in the opinion of very competent judges, the “Minden”, for beauty of construction and strength of frame, may stand in competition with any man-of-war that has come out of the most celebrated Dockyards of Great Britain.
Francis Scott Key standing on boat, with right arm stretched out toward the United States flag flying over Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland.For the skill of its architects, for the superiority of its timber, and for the excellence of its docks, Bombay may now claim a distinguished place amongst naval arsenals.”
For patriotic Americans, familiar with U.S. history, the Minden must hold a dear and inspired place. During the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key boarded a British warship to intercede on behalf of some prisoners. From this vantage point, Key witnessed the ship’s bombardment of Fort McHenry, in Baltimore Harbor. The bombardment lasted from twilight to dawn’s early light. Key observed this shelling with great anxiety, hoping that our flag would still be flying the next day. When he saw the stars and stripes flying in all its glory the next morning, he was inspired to compose our national anthem on board this British man-of-war.
The Star Spangled Banner was composed by Francis Scott Key, in the port of Baltimore, on board the H.M.S. Minden, a ship built by the Wadias, in the port of Bombay.
What a marvelous connection with our history!

Photo Credits
Raphael’s School of Athens – Wikimedia Public Domain
Relief of Cyrus the Great. – Wikimedia Creative Commons
Fire Temple – Wikimedia Creative Commons
Wadia, Nussarwanji Maneckji – zoroastrian.org
Francis Scott Key standing on boat – Wikimedia Public Domain

Bombay Dockyard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Naval dockyard, Mumbai: Entry to the dockyard is restricted to naval personnel only
Bombay Dockyard—also known as Naval Dockyard—is an Indian shipbuilding yard at Mumbai.

Background[edit]

Mural on the walls of the Naval Dockyard, Mumbai
Shipbuilding was an established profession throughout the Indian coastline prior to the advent of the Europeans and it contributed significantly to maritime exploration throughout Indian maritime history.[1] Indian rulers weakened with the advent of the European powers during the middle ages.[2] Indian shipbuilders, however, continued to build ships capable of carrying 800 to 1000 tons.[2] The shipbuilders built ships like HMS Hindostan andHMS Ceylon, inducted into the Royal Navy.[2] Other historical ships made by the Indian shipbuilders included HMS Asia (commanded by Edward Codrington during the Battle of Navarino in 1827), HMS Cornwallis (on board which the Treaty of Nanking was signed in 1842), and HMS Minden (on which Francis Scott Key wrote the poem "The Defence of Fort McHenry", later to become the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner").[2]

History[edit]

The Yard was established in 1735 by the East India Company, which brought in shipwrights from their base at Surat in order to construct vessels using Malabar teak. One of their number, Lovji Nusserwanjee Wadia, was (along with several generations of his descendants) a key figure in the success of the Yard, as indicated in The New Cambridge History of India: Science, Technology and Medicine in Colonial India:[1]
Between the seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries Indian shipyards produced a series of vessels incorporating these hybrid features. A large proportion of them were built in Bombay, where the Company had established a small shipyard. In 1736 Parsi carpenters were brought in from Surat to work there and, when their European supervisor died, one of the carpenters, Lowji Nuserwanji Wadia, was appointed Master Builder in his place. Wadia oversaw the construction of thirty-five ships, twenty-one of them for the Company. Following his death in 1774, his sons took charge of the shipyard and between them built a further thirty ships over the next sixteen years. The Britannia, a ship of 749 tons launched in 1778, so impressed the Court of Directors when it reached Britain that several new ships were commissioned from Bombay, some of which later passed into the hands of the Royal Navy. In all, between 1736 and 1821, 159 ships of over 100 tons were built at Bombay, including 15 of over 1,000 tons. Ships constructed at Bombay in its heyday were said to be ‘vastly superior to anything built anywhere else in the world’.
Lowji Wadia oversaw the building of Bombay Dock, Asia's first dry dock, in 1750; it is still in use today. A contemporary British traveller, Abraham Parsons, described it as follows in 1775:[3]
Here is a dock-yard, large and well contrived, with all kind of naval stores deposited in proper warehouses, together with great quantities of timber and planks for repairing and building ships, and forges for making of anchors, as well as every kind of smaller smiths’ work. It boasts such a dry dock, as, perhaps, is not to be seen in any part of Europe, either for size or convenient situation. It has three divisions, and three pair of strong gates, so as to be capable of receiving and repairing three ships of the line, at the same or at separate times; as the outermost ship can warp out, and another be admitted in her place every spring tide, without any interruption of the work doing to the second and innermost ships; or both the outermost and the second ship can go out, and two others be received in their places, without hindrance to the workmen employed on the third or innermost ship. Near the dock is a convenient place to grave several ships at once, which is done as well, and with as great expedition, as in any dock in England. Near the dock-yard is a rope walk, which for length, situation, and conveniency, equals any in England, that in the king’s yard at Portsmouth only excepted, and, like that, it has a covering to shelter the workmen from the inclemency of the weather in all seasons. Here are made cables and all sorts of lesser cordage, both for the royal navy, the company’s marine, and the merchant, ships which trade to these parts of India. Besides cordage made of hemp, cables, hawsers, and all kinds of smaller ropes, are made of the external fibres of the cocoa-nut, which they have in such abundance in India, as to make a great article of trade among the natives of this place and those along the coasts, between Bombay and Cape Comorin. The yarn made of these fibres is mostly manufactured in the towns and villages, on or near the sea coast of Malabar: many vessels belonging to the natives are laden entirely with this yarn, which they always find a quick sale for at Bombay and Surat, let the quantity be ever so great, as it is the only cordage made use of amongst the small trading vessels of the country: large ships use much of it, made into cables, hawsers, and smaller ropes; it is called kyah. Ships built at Bombay are not only as strong, but as handsome, are as well finished as ships built in any part of Europe; the timber and plank, of which they are built, so far exceeds any in Europe for durability that it is usual for ships to last fifty or sixty years; as a proof of which I am informed, that the ship called the Bombay grab, of twenty-four guns, (the second in size belonging to the Company’s marine) has been built more than sixty years, and is now a good and strong ship. This timber and plank arc peculiar to India only; the best on this side of India grows to the north of Bombay; what grows to the south, on the coast of. Malabar, is, however, very good, and great quantities of it are, brought to Bombay; it is called tiek, and will last in a-hot climate longer than any wood whatever.
In 1811 the British Royal Navy took over the Yard, continuing to work with the Wadia family as Master Shipwrights. There was much construction on the site around this time. Duncan Dock, which was the largest dry dock outside Europe at the time, was constructed in 1807-1810, and remains in use today.[4] The main Dockyard building, which fronts on to Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, dates from 1807, as does the administration block. The nearby Great Western Building (formerly Admiralty House) had housed the Port Admiralfrom around 1764-1792.
Today the Yard serves as the premier repair yard of the Indian Navy. It employs 10,000 workers (mostly civilians) overseen by an Admiral Superintendent.[5]
View of the dockyard from the sea

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b Arnold, 101-102
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Early History (Indian Navy), National Informatics Center, Government of India
  3. Jump up^ Abraham Parsons, Travels in Asia and Africa, London, 1808, p. 214-215
  4. Jump up^ "Indian Navy (heritage)".
  5. Jump up^ "Indian Navy website".

Shipbuilding at Bombay
R. K. Kochhar
The arrival of the Portuguese by sea in
1498 introduced navy as a new parameter
in the Indian geopolitical equations,
placing the Indian rulers at a
disadvantage for all times to come. The
Portuguese and the Dutch success in
East Indies as brought home by the
capture of their ships brought the
British to the Indian shores in 1608. The
trade was extremely lucrative despite
the risks. During the third voyage cloves
were purchased at Moluccas for £2948,
which on return to England fetched
£36,287. The first 11 years of trading
with East Indies- (including India) "gave
clear profits, seldom below one
hundred~ and often more than two
hundred, per cent, on the capital
invested on the voyage'. The Portuguese
violently opposed the British presence
in what they considered to be their own
zone of influence. The British decided
to meet force with force and inflicted a
crushing defeat on the Portuguese on
sea in 1612. The chain of events that
culminated in the 1757 battle of Plassey
in Bengal had its beginning in this sea
skirmish. The naval prowess and the
religious neutrality of the British greatly
impressed the Mughal emperors who
though powerful on land like the
elephant were helpless on sea which was
infested with European crocodiles. The
British were asked to contain the
fanatically anti-MusliIn Portuguese,
who were particu larly severe on the Haj
pilgrims. In return the English merchants
received attractive business concessions.
(Another factor in favour of
the British was the expertise of its
ships' doctors, which was made
available to the Mughal umra, that is
nobility.)2
To protect its trade from the
Portuguese and the pirates, the English
merchants at Surat locally established,
in 1613. east India company's marine.
The small naval service consisted of
coastal boats. known as grabs and
gallivats, on which were mounted two to
six guns and which were manned by
volunteers from the company's ships
who fought as well as traded. This
service developed first into Bombay
marine and finally into Indian navy3
(see Table 1). Generally speaking,
marine was meant to protect the coastal
area, whereas the navy could cast its net
wider. It is said that at one time when
Lord Nelson, 'the future victor of Nile
and Trafalgar was in embarrassed
circumstances, he was a candidate for
the appointment of the superintendent
of the Bombay marine,4.
The seaport of Surat was located some
12 miles to the west at a village called
Swally. The British repaired their old
ships here and in course of time started
building new ones. Surat had a long
tradition of shipbuilding and even the
Mughal emperors got their ships built
here. (Figure I shows a traditional boat
that was used on the eastern waters.)
Once the British shifted from Surat to
Bombay~ shipbuilding activity was also
transferred. The tirst Europeans to touch
Bombay were the Portuguese who
arrived at Mahim in 1509 and took over
the island in 1534. In 1538 (or 1541)
Bombay was rented in perpetuity to
Garcia d 'Orta., a physician and professor
of Lisbon (and said to be a converted
Jew). He paid a yearly quit rent of about
£85. In 1563 he wrote a book
"Dialogues on simples and drugs' where
he mentions the island under the names
of Bombaim and Mombaim. D'Orta
lived in India from 1534 to 1572
(ref. 5).
Bombay
While Portugal and Britain were
engaged in bitter rivalry in India, they
entered into a royal marriage contract
which had far reaching consequenceso.
The English king Charles II married
princess Infanta Catherine of the House
of Braganza of Portugal. According to
the 11th article of the treaty of marriage,
Table 1. The evolution of I ndian navy
1612-1950
1613-1686
1686-1830
1830-1863
1863-1877
1877-1892
1892-1950
1950-
East India company's marine
Bombay marine
Her majesty's Indian navy
Bomqay marine
Her majesty's Indian marine
Royal Indian navy
Indian navy ,
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 66. NO. 12~ 25 JUNE 1994
dated 23 June 1661, her dowry included
'the Port and Island of Bomhay in tttl:
East Indies, together with all the rights.
profits, territories, and appurtenance~
thereof whatsoever'. The small island,
some eight miics long and three miles
wide~ no doubt mattered little to the
king of Portugal. But it enclosed a landlocked
bay and its natural harbour could
shelter a large fleet. When the news
reached India, the Portuguese circles in - India were dismayed and immediately
pointed out the disadvantages of making
such a gi ft. An attempt was nlade to
purchase the island back from England,
but Charles II wanted such large sums
'that they reach to millions'. The island
of Bombay was finally transferred to
England on 8 February 1665, without
any trace of grace or pleasantness that
one normally associates with a bride's
dowry. The king's govcrnor of Bombay
soon discovered that the island cost
more to govern than it yielded as
revenue. By a charter datcd 23 March
1668, Charles II granted the port and
island of Bomhay to the East India
Company 'to be held to the said
Company... in perpetuity and in free
and common soccage at a fee farm rent
of £ 1 () payable on the 30th or
September yearly at the Custom-house'.
The island of Bombay was formally
handed over to the east India company
on 23 September 1668.
While opposing the inclusion of'
Bombay in the dowry. the Portuguese
viceroy of Goa f Antonio de Mellow de
Castro] had' written7
, 'I foresee that
India will be lost the same day on which
the English Nation is settled in
Bombay.' These words were prophetic
indeed. The British shifted their capital
from Surat to Bombay in 1686. The
little island' became the naval fortress
from where Britain went ahead to build
a vast overseas colonial empire.
Dockyard
Bombay h:ad taken to shipbuilding in
the Portuguese time itself. In 1625 when
the English and the Dutch jointly raided
Bombay they found two boats under
constructi'On which they pron1ptly put to
965 
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY AND 'NOTES
>, • , ,
, ,',\ '
'.' I"
Figure 1. 'Decca Pulwar', of 17 ton burden, used on the eastern branches and upper
channels of the deltas of Ganga and Brahmaputra. The bottom of the boat resembles
the immersed portion of the nautilus shell. 'These are well-built boats of hard wood,
and use square sails.' (Henderson A., British Association for the Advancement of
Science Report for 1858, p. 272.)
flames. As soon as Bombay passed into
the British hands~ repairs and
shipbuilding were started under the new
auspices. The British repaired their
merchant ships. In addition they built
new ones to deal with the menace of
piracy from Indian and foreign
adventures as well as to meet the threat
from their European competitors. There
were problems~ though. The Portuguese
obstructed the supply of timber~ and the
Mughal authorities did not permit good
carpenters to leave Surat. Most of the
carpenters at Surat were Parsis. A letter
from Bombay to Surat dated 10 January
1736 states that 'We have intention to
build a new grab but we are in want of a
good carpenter. We are told that there is
one in Surat named Lowjee. If he will
come hither he shall have aJl fitting
encouragement'. Lowjee Nusserwanjee
[Wadia] arrived in Bombay from Surat
in March 1736~ accompanied by ten
other carpenters. The salary demanded
by them was prelt: high. but the
Bombay governmCl)1 hoped that 'they
would deserve it by their performance'.
(The hope was certainly fulfilled.
Lowjee was designated master builder
in 1740. The post remained with his
descendants ti 11 1884 when the
dockyard was transferred from the
Bombay government to the Indian
governments. Figure 2 shows Lowjee
or Lowji's son and successor l\1aneckji
Lowji. The surname Wadia was
not appended inofficial correspondence.)

This was tl1~' lime when the British
were engaged 1 n a bitter fight against
the piracy 01 ! Il~ Angrias, which lasted
morc than -4( I )- cars from about 1707 to
1751. COnlld.l(;(; or Kanhojec [Kanha-ji]
Angria ,\ as a common seaman in
Shivaji's neet, but rose to command a
fleet of his own. • Animated by a lust for
plunder, there now flocked to his
standard numerous adventurers, including
renegade Christians. mostly Dutch
and Portuguese, Arabs, Mussulmen and
Negroes, a most daring and desperate
band,0. (Note the selective use of the
adjective renegady.) Kanha-jee Angria
died in about 1731 and was suceeded by
his son Sambh~~ee. He was finally
defeated by the British in 1751. During
the period Bomba:v built a number of
coastal boats apart from repairing
merchant ships. In 1745 two boats were
made for the viceri,oy of Goa for usc
against his enelnies. This was done as
the 'same will be th(~ means of keeping a
number of workmen lupon the Island and
be otherwise benefidal'. In' addition to
meeting its own f(~quirements on the
west coast, Bombay; also built ships for
Calcutta and Madra~~. Construction of a
dry dock was taken! up in 1749. This
first dry dock to be built in India is still
in use, now known as the upper old
Bombay dock. Others were built in the
following years.
In the first phase of shipbuilding the
emphasis had been on repairs and
construction of coastal boats for
protection. The things however soon
changed. Increasing prosperity of the
east India company meant building of
bigger and larger number of ships in
England. This and the marine rivalry in
Europe resulted in large scale fell ing of
oak trees in Britain. Accordingly in
1772 the company was prohibited from
building any large ships. They were
asked instead to either build their
vessels in India or colonies or to charter
vessels built there. Preservation of
British oak forests was one rcason.
Superiority of teak over oak was
another. Oak contains lignic acid ·which
corrodes and consumes the very metal
(iron) which is employed to unite and
secure it in the various forms into wh.ich
it is converted for the purposes of naval
architecture'. In contrast teak "abounds
with oleaginous particles. the best and
certain defence of iron from corrosion
by the action of the acid'. In addition
"teak was not disposed to splinter to the
same extent as oak' and thus "the eflcct
of shot upon teak is Hu less dangerous
than upon oak 10
, , '
Figure 2. Maneckji Lowji Wadia (1720-
92), the second master builder of
Bombay dockyards 1774-92 (picture
courtesy: Neville N. Wadia).
966 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 66. NO. 12, 25 JUNE 1994 
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY AND NOTES
The shipbuilders in Britain were not
impressed by these arguments. Their
main concern was loss of business. As a
sop to them, the British parliament
ordered that the crew and the captain of
Indian ships should be Englishmen. The
British Indian government chipped in by
levying 150/0 duty on goods imported
into India in India-built ships but only
half this amount on goods brought in
British-built ships. In addition, it was
stipulated that only British ships could
import goods 'froin south and east of
the Cape of Good Hope'.
Ship-building industry in Bombay
under the leadership of the Lowjee
falnily now entered its golden agel I. The
frigate 'Cornwallis' built for the company
in 1800 by Jamsetjee Bomanjee
was found to be so beautifully constructed
and of such great strength, that it
was purchased by the admiralty.
J anlsetjee took a pri vate revenge for the
racial insults that were the order of the
day. On the kelson of this ship, he
carved the words 'this ship was built by
a d-d Black Fellow A.D. 1800'. Attention
was drawn to this by Jamsetjee
himself when the ship, renamed Ackbar
by the admiralty. returned to the
Bombay docks many years later 12
•
In 181 O~ Bombay built a 74 gun vessel
'Minden' for the British navy. It was the
first line of ship of the admiralty built
outside UK 13. At about the same time "a
similar vessel was subscribed by the
inhabitants of Calcutta, built at Kidderpore
.. and presented to the Admiralty,14.
The admiralty however was not impressed
and -did not oblige by placing a
further order for a vessel of that size
with the Calcutta shipwrights' 15.
An 18 gun ship 'Clive' built at
BOlnbay in 1826 lends itself to a brief
mention of the prevalent slave trade and
the patronage it received 16. Commander
of the ship, 10hn Croft Hawkins, was
asked in 1830 "to proceed to the coast
of Africa and islands in its vicinity' and
"to adopt the best means of entering for
the service as many able-bodied lads as
you can, in age from twelve to eighteen,
free from all disease and bodily
infIrmity. and of that compact symmetry
best calculated for seamen.' On his
return Hawkins was tried for slave
trade. It became certain that there were
other secret instructions that were never
brought on record. Hawkins in fact did
not permit his lawyer to address the
court lest the lawyer compromise for the
sake of his client the navy superintendent
or the government. It was
implied that the case was brought to
trial not because of the illegality
involved but because the judge of the
high court wished to embarrass the
Bombay governor (Sir 10hn Malcolm)
and his brother. the navy superintendent
(Sir Charles Malcolm).
The court pronounced Hawkins guilty
of slave trade and condemned him to 'be
transported to the east coast of New
South Wales for the term of seven
years.' The sentence was however
subverted. Hawkins was put in a navy
ship with clear instructions that he be
treated as an officer and a gentleman.
When the ship touched Madras,
Hawkins and the ship commander "were
feted for three days by the community'.
At Batavia [Jakarata], the conlmander
decided with a straight face that his ship
could not proceed to Sydney. It nlust be
diverted to England to deliver some
important despatches that had accumulated
at Batavia. In London. the president
of the company obtained an
interview with the king who pardoned
Hawkins and "graciously commanded
that he should appear at the next levee.'
"Commander Hawkins obeyed the royal
mandate, when His Majesty received
him with great kindness, and conversed
with him.' Hawkins was paid his back
wages as well as lawyer's fees and
reappointed to the command of his old
ship "Clive'. He rose to become the
superintendent of Indian navy.
Steam navigation
Although a patent had been obtained as
early as 1736 (by Jonathan Hull) for
applying steam engines to propel ships,
it was not till the steam engine was
perfected by James Watt that steam
navigation could show signs of success.
The lead came from USA, which did not
have roads but had large tree-lined
rivers. The first steam vessel that was a
practical success and remunerated its
owners was a river boat 'Clermont' that
in 1807 ran the 146 mile distance
between New York city and Aibany. It
was almost immediately followed by the
first sea-going vessell 7
• In Britain steam
navigation was established in 1817 with
a small 3.5 HP steam boat ~Comet' on
river Clyde. The first regular sea-going
steamer, 'Bob Ray' ~ with a 30 HP
engine commenced operation in 1815
between Glasgow and Belfast. In 18] 9~
the British navy acquired its first
steamer, named 'ComeC.
CURRENT SCIENCE~ VOL. 66. NO. 12,. 25 JUNE 1994
Britain was now an industrial nation,
and captive India was the best thing
happening to it. In the. year 1793,
England sent out cotton goods worth
£ 156 to India. In the year 1802 the
figure was £27,876, while 10 years later
it had gone up to £ I O~.824. In 1813, the
British parliament abolished the trade
monopoly of the company. so that the
British manufacturers and traders were
now free to enter the huge Indian
market. During the 16 years after 1813,
the company's annual trade averaged
£ 1 ,882,718 whereas private trade was
three tin1es higher at £5,451.452 (ref.
18). (In 1833 the company ceased to be
a trader altogether. It became administrator
and ruler of India, deriving its
dividend from the revenues from the
country. Control of India passed to the
crown in 1858, and the company was
wound up in 1874.)
The merchants were keen to introduce
steam navigation on three routes: on the
placid north Indian rivers, in the opiumtea
trade with China, and for steam
communication between Calcutta and
England. Early steam machinery was
rather daunting. It used coal voraciously
and was extremely complex for easy
maintenance. Merchants neither had the
capital nor the patience to see it through
the developmen~al stages. The cOlnpany.
no longer the monopolist it once was,
had no intention of sinking its money
into stearn for trade, but it had wars to
win. What saw the steam navigation
through was the Burmese war 1824-26
(refs 19, 20).
Captain Charles James Collie
Davidson of Bengal engineers and son
of a Calcutta merchant brought an 8 HP
engine with an iron boiler and meant for
a river boat. It was the first steam
engine in India. It was left to rust till the
company bought it in 1822 for use in a
dredging boat. When the Burmese war.
broke out it was converted into a pedal
boat and fitted out as a floating battery.
'Though her speed was only 4 knots,
much benefit was derived from her in
the passage of troops over creeks and
estuaries of that [Arakan] coast'.
IncidentaIly~ the first steam-propelled
vessel in India does not belong to the
realm of compulsions of history, but to
the romance of history, as exemplified
by the idiosyncracies of a nawab.
Displaying a magpie like fascination for
novelties and probably as a commemoration
of declaration of "independence
~ from the titualar emperor of
Delhi~ nawab Ghazi-ud-Din Haider of
967 
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY AND NOTES
the 1 tch north Indian state of Oudh
t. , .. orrectly Avadh) got a river boat built
for hin'l)elf at Calcutta, in 1819. It has
un 8 HP butterfly engine which gave the
boat a ')peed of 7-8 miles an hour. The
:)cat was a toy; when the governorg~!l.:ral
of India visited Lucknow. the
huat was decked up for inspection. (The
nawab, who had a European wife, also
built a short-lived modern observatory
at Lucknow. )21
The economics of early steam
navigation can be seen from Calcutta's
first steamer, 'Diana'. A member of the
company's factory at Canton ordered a
pair of 16 HP engines with a copper
boiler and the whole frame with a view
to getting a river steamer built for
service on the Canton river. UI1able to
go ahead with his scheme, he reshipped
the whole thing to Calcutta and offered
it to the government for Rs 65,000,
which was however refused. A group of
111erchants bought it and spent another
Rs 10.000 to replace the original
oakwood frame with the sturdier one of
teaK. The steamer was launched in 1823.
The next year. luckily for the owners,
the government bought it for Rs 80,000
for the Burmese war22. "Diana', unaffected
by the south-west monsoons, was
the 'star of the war'. Called 'tire devil'
by the Burmese, it easily brought about
British victory which secured Assam
and added the provinces of Arakan and
Tenesserim to the Company's fold23 .
The river steamers were no substitute
for steam link between Calcutta and
England, for which both the government
and merchants worked. A steam fund of
Rs 69 , 903 was collected at Calcutta and
offered as a prize to anyone whose
steamship could make four consecutive
voyages between Bengal and England at
an average of 70 days per trip (via the
cape of good hope). Towards this fund
Rs 20,000 came from thl: !:!overnofgeneral,
Rs 2,000 from th~ na\Vab of.
Oudh~ and the rest from various
businessmen of Calcutta24 . The investors
in England made a gallant attempt
to rise to the occasion by building
Britain's first sea-going ship propelled
by steam25 . Aptly named 'Enterprize', it
was a ship of 500 ton powered by two
60 HP engines, with copper boilers
extending across the ship, and seven
furnaces" each seven feet in length.
Carrying passengers and 30 tons of coal,
.. Enterprize left England in August
1825, and took as many as 1] 5 days' to
reach Calcutta under steam and saiL The
968
performance was declared unsatisfactory
by the mercantile community, because a
splendid sailing ship could cover the
same distance in 90 days. Steam
enth usiasts were disappointed but not
the investors. On its arrival at Calcutta,
'Enterprize' was purchased by the
government for £40.000. and sent to
Rangoon. It was put to use for towing
ships between Calcutta and the newly
acquired territories.
It was not only Calcutta that was
interested in a steam link to England.
Bombay was interested even more.
Monsoon winds made it easier for a
sailing ship to reach Calcutta than
Bombay. Steam would give Bombay the
benefit of shorter distance to Europe.
The Bombay governor, Mounstart
Elphinstone, made 'a distinct official
proposition' in 1823 to the court of
directors for the establishment of steam
communication between Bombay and
England, via the Red sea. (In the preSuez
canal days this involved an
overland journey across Egypt to reach
the Mediterranean sea.) The proposal
was renewed in 1826, "but the Court
were unwilling to act upon the suggestion'.
Elphinstone's successor, Sir John
Malcolm, decided to go ahead on his
own. A steamer was .Quilt at the Wadia
dockyard and ironically named "Hugh
Lindsay' after the sceptical company
chairman. 'Hugh Lindsay' was a small
ship of only 411 tonnes, with two 80 HP
engines. It left Bombay in March 1830
on its experimental voyage of 3000
miles, to Suez. It had to carry sufficient
coal to reach Aden., 1641 miles away.
Before ~Hugh Lindsay' left, a collier
brig. laden with 600 tonnes of coal, was
dispatched so that coal could be stored
at Aden, liddah and Suez. 'Hugh
Lindsay' itself carried as much coal as it
could, filling with coal more than two
thirds of the space meant for passengers.
The voyage was a spectacular success.
The ship could reach Aden in 11 days
under steam alone. The journey to Suez
took a total of 32 days consisting of 21
days of actual journey and 11 for
stoppages. 'Hugh Lindsay' made a total
of five voyages to Suez till 1833, all
heavily subsidized. The average expense
of coal per voyage was Rs 46,250 while
receipts from passengers and letters
avt?raged only Rs' 14,225 (ref. 26).
Finally in 1834, the parliamentary
committee resolved that 'it is expedient
that measures should be immediately
taken for the regular establishment of
steam communication27 with India by
the Red sea', asking at the same time
that "the expenses may be materially
reduced' .
Steam. navigation had far-reaching
consequences. First, Bombay became
gateway to India. It has continued since
then as the business capital of India.
Secondly, the Red sea and the Persian
gulf area was scientifically surveyed.
Finally, all the countries en route lost
their independence28 . To provide "Hugh
Lindsay' with fuel, the small island of
Socotra, off the horn of Africa, was
needed as a coaling station. Accordingly
it was taken over by the British in 1835.
Soon, it was realized that Aden was a
better choice; it was taken by force in
1839. The only bottleneck in the Red
sea route was the 10-day long arduous
journey across Egypt. Suez canal was
dug in 1869. Ironically, it was dug with
French capitaL even though the biggest
beneficiaries were the British interests.
The first ship to pay the toll on the Suez
canal was British. Egypt was added to
the British colonial empire in 1882.
Introduction of steam navigation did
not mean immediate end of sailing
ships. Early steamships were so
unprofitable that they had to depend on
government subsidies. The commercial
viability of steam came only when
engines were greatly improved and
ships were made of iron and then of
steel. This effectively brought teak-ship
building at Bombay to a close, bringing
to an end a chapter in the colonial
history. From 1736 to ] 884 .. the Wadias
built a total of 334 vessels for a variety
of owners: East India company, private
merchants. N izam of Hyderabad, Imam
of Muscat, and the British navy. Out of
these 334, 39 were either specitically
built or subsequently acquired by the
British navy during the period 1777-
1849. A frigate Trincomalee built in
1817 for the British navy is still afloat
under the name 'Foudroyant'. The
Wadia vessels were put to a wide
variety of use, from carrying coal to the
Bombay governor himself. For completeness
it may be added that from 1885 to
1936 another 46 vessels were built at
the Bombay dockyards29 .
Britain owed its colonial empire to its
sea power. The Bombay dockyard under
the Wadias was an important, though
small, contributor towards efficient and
low-cost maintenance of that power.
1. Low, C. R.,. History of the Indian Navy,
voL 1, 1877; see pp. 6, 12. [Gives
CURRENT SCIENCE~ VOL. 66, NO. 12,25 JUNE 1994 
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY AND NOTES
a detailed account of events 1613-
1863.]
2. A ship's doctor [Gabriel Boughton]
visited Shah lahan's court at Agra in
1645 and later served as a surgeon to
the emperor's son Shah Shuja who was
the viceroy of Bengal. Then in 1716, the
company's embassy to Delhi included a
surgeon [William Hamilton] who cured
the emperor of a painful disease that
had delayed his marriage. In both cases,
medical services were reciprocated with
handsome gifts and trading concessions.
See Crawford, D. G., A History of the
Indian Medical Service, 1914, vol. 1,
pp.51,113.
3. Wadia, R. A., The Bombay Dockyard
and the Wadia Master Builders,
Bombay, 1957 (Reprint 1983), 2nd edn,
see p. 20.
4. Ref. 1, p. 525.
5. Douglas, James, Glimpses of Old
Bombay and Western India. 1893, vol.
1,p.249.
6. Ref. 1, p. 54.
7. da Cunha, Garson, Origin of Bombay,
pp. 247, 258: cited in ref. 3, p. 9.
8. The Wadias received three grants of
Inam land in Bombay~ they were the
only ones ever granted. The first was in
1783, the second was in two instalments
in 1821 and 1849, whereas the third was
in 1884 on the retirement of the last
master builder (ref. 3, pp. 167, 251,
319). In addition, there were a number
of presents of medals, rulers and shawls.
The prestige earned by the shipbuilding
Wadias helped other branches of the
clan in establishing themselves in
various lines of business.
9. Ref. 1, p. 97.
10. Ref. 3, ch. 6.
11. This. ended the golden age of the
Malabar-teak forests. Finally, in 1847
when iron was replacing teak as the
material for building ships, a
conservator of forests [Dr Alexander
Gibson] was appointed at Bombay.
12. Ref. 3, p. 191.
13. The national anthem of USA, • starspangled
banner') was composed by
Francis Kay on board the 'Minden~
when it was in Baltimore. Ref. 3~
p.20S.
14. This was 'Hastings'. the 74 gun,
solitary, line-of-war ship built at
Kidderpore near Calcutta in 1818. The
dockyard was established in 1780 by
Henry Watson (1737-86) of Bengal
engineers, on a piece of land obtained as
a grant from the government. In 1781 he
launched the 36 gun frigate 'Nonsuch'.
In 1788 he launched another frigate, the
'Surprize', of 32 guns. <But his
resources were by this time exhausted;
after having sunk ten lakh rupees in his
dockyard, he was obliged to relinquish
it'. The major activity at Kidderpore
was in the hands of the two Kyd
brothers James (1786-1836) and Robert
(d. IS25) sons of Lt. Gen. Alexander
Kyd, the surveyor general of Bengal
1788-94. The two brothers were trained
in shipbuilding in England. Returning
to Calcutta in 1800, they were
apprenticed to Waddell, the company's
master builder. On his retirement in
1807, they purchased the Kidderpore
dockyard, with James Kyd becoming
master builder to the company. A total
of 25 ships were built at his dockyard
including Hastings. 'Diana' the first
steamer on river Hughli, was built in
1823. On James Kyd's death in 1836.
the dockyard was purchased by the
government. See Buckland, C. E.,
Dictionary of Indian Biography. 1906,
pp. 442, 239; PhiIljmore, R. B.,
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 66, NO. 12.25 JUNE 1994
Historical Records of the Survey of
India, 1945, vol. 1, p. 394.
15. Ref. 3, p. 212.
16. Ref. I, p. 505.
17. Since Robert Fulton, the owner of
·Clermont'. had obtained the exclusive
right of navigating the waters of the
state of New York, John Cox Stevens
boldly conveyed his ship from New
York city to Delaware by sea.
Samuelson, Martin, Q. J. Sci., 1864, 1,
239.
18. Dutt, Romesh, The Economic History of
India, 1906, 2nd edn, vol. 1, pp. IS3,
209.
19. Ref. I, pp. 520-S32~ Ref. 3, eh. 12.
20. Headrick, D. R., The Tools of Empire,
Oxford Univ. Press, 1981, eh. 1.
21. Kochhar, R. K., Vistas in Astronomy,
1991,34,69.
22. Ref. 3, p. 288.
23. Ref. 20, p. 2 L also see ref. 19.
24. Ref. 20, p. 134.
25. Ref. 19, 20.
26. Ref. I, p. 532.
27. Much to its humiliation, Indian navy
was asked to run a steam service for
post and passengers from 1838 to 1854
when the service was handed over to the
private Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Co. See ref. 20, p. 138.
28. Ref. 20. pp. 136, 156.
29. Ref. 3, App. B & C.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. I thank Mr Neville
N. Wadia for his help in collecting material
for this artic1e.
R. K. Kochhar is in the Indian Institute of
Astrophysics, Koramangala, Bangalore
560 034, India. 
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