EAST MEETS WEST
Original Records of Western Traders, Travellers, Missionaries and Diplomats to 1852

Part 5: East India Company: Ship's logs, 1701-1851, from the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

The East India Company began as a high risk commercial enterprise which developed into a successful trade network linking the East with the West. The ships’ logs are an important part of the history of the Company as they vividly document this process.

This part consists of EIC ships’ logs held in the Library of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. They have been chosen to focus on the later voyages of the Company between 1701 and 1851 and therefore complement the EIC ships’ logs from the British Library for the earlier period up to 1701 which can be found in Part 4 of our series.

On 31 December 1600 Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to George Earl of Cumberland and two hundred and fifteen Knights, Aldermen and Merchants for the formation of “The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies”. Initially the East India Company, as it became known, concentrated on buying aromatic spices from the Indonesian islands but by the second half of the seventeenth century it was importing textiles from India, coffee from Mokha in the Yemen and tea and porcelain from China. Ultimately it had the monopoly of all British trade east of the Cape of Good Hope with the right to prosecute any other ships sailing to Asia. However, in 1813 the renewal of its charter limited its monopoly to the China trade and by 1833 even the China monopoly had been abolished. However the Company continued to trade commercially and administer British India and other territories on behalf of the Crown until 1874 when it was wound up by an Act of Parliament. Some of the records of the Company were destroyed but fortunately most survived, including the logs of the company’s ships. Most of these are now preserved in the Maritime Records of the East India Company in the Asian, Pacific and African Collections at the British Library, London. However the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich holds around seventy logs which were the property of the writer, usually the mate, although there are a few written by the commander or the purser.

We have filmed 50 logs from the NMM which are not held at the British Library, covering the period 1701-1851. They are arranged in NMM reference order, written in a clear hand and are in very good condition. Some of them contain excellent topographical pencil sketches and maps in watercolours.

The logs contain basic ship records together with added details on the events of the voyages to China and India including:

• Ports of call and encounters at each port
• Descriptions of other EIC ships in the harbour
• Descriptions of the cities, scenery and sights of interest
• Routine tasks carried out on board, such as repairing sails, cleaning arms, carpentry, washing the deck
• Details of the cargo carried
• Lists of passengers and crew and troops
• Details of wages paid to crew
• Estimates for rigging, sails, anchors, painting and plumbing
• Deck plans and dimensions
• Information on contact with trading communities
• Lists of ships contacted during the voyage
• Living conditions on board
• Bills for the stores needed on ship
• Notes on the loss of seamen and passengers due to sickness or accidents
• Details on punishments handed out to seamen for misdemeanours onboard
• Routes taken, course settings, latitude and longitude, and weather conditions
• Maps
• Topographical drawings

LOG/JOD/159 contains the journal of Thomas Gardiner kept on voyages to Bengal and China from 1829-1833. It includes very detailed entries on his time spent ashore in India and China. He describes the scene near Calcutta:

“At 12.00 anchored opposite the Company’s Botanical Gardens at Garden Beach and with Frazer went ashore. We visited and were very much interested with this beautiful place and looked with wondering admiration on the immense ‘Banyan Trees’ which are there. Cocoa, Coffee, Nutmeg, Clove, Cinnamon with all the other produce of an Indian climate….”

The log of the Dover Castle (LOG/C/18), which sailed in 1801 to Madras and Bengal, is particularly interesting as it contains a description of military operations in Penang, when the ship was taken over as a man of war. It also includes beautiful coloured topographical drawings of Boura.

The log kept by Colin Campbell as a passenger on his brother’s ship, the General Hewitt  (LOG/C/19) gives a very detailed description of the voyage from the River Pei-Ho in China to England passing Amoy, Canton, and the islands of Java, St Helena and Ascension. Daily details are given not only of the sights they passed and the places he visited but also of life on board ship:

“Wednesday 4th of August 1816 in the Gulf of Petchelee

This being Wednesday the People employed during the Forenoon Washing their Cloathes, also the Gun Deck. This is always done every Wednesday and Saturday if the weather will admit of it….”

In the following extract he describes an encounter with Mandarins on a Chinese junk:

“Friday the 16th of August, 1816 at anchor off the Island of Miatan

At seven o’clock two Junks came alongside with several Mandarins & two of them of high rank, one having an opaque Blue, & the other a transparent Blue button in their Caps. Both these came I believe from the City of Tan Choo Foo on the Continent, the others from the different Islands near us. Both of the principal ones were very handsomely dressed…. One was a very good humoured Old Boy, the other who had been several times at Canton & had seen Europeans was not so pleasant, was extremely Pompous & gave himself great airs….”

The logs kept by Robert Scott, EIC agent of transports, as a passenger on the Jehanger from Bombay to Bushire and on the Forbes from Bombay to Bengal, 1805-1806 provide a different perspective on ship life in their detailed description of the daily activities of the passengers.  

Some of the logs included are those of ships belonging to the Bombay Marine which was the Company’s private navy, intended predominantly for protecting the coast. It operated from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean and was also responsible for survey work.  During wars it operated alongside the Royal Navy and during its final years, 1830-1863, was known as the Indian Navy.

Included are the logs of Captain Robert Scott (LOG/C/52), kept while in charge of the Ternate, the Star and the Duke of Clarence in the East Indies and in the Straits of Malacca in 1801 and those of William H Carpendale of the Taptee, Hastings, Ferooz, Constance, Elphinstone, Auckland, 1848-1851 (LOG/C/17).

The log of Commander William Igglesden of the Tigris on a voyage from Bombay via the Malabar Coast to Cochin, then to Ceylon, the Cacos Islands, Van Diamans Land, the Torres Straits, Wednesday Island, Murray Island and back in 1836 (LOG/C/35) contains very good entries on the land they passed, the animals they saw and the native inhabitants they encountered:

“Sunday 13th March 1836

During the Day Four Whales visited us at least 60 feet in length each, apparently male & female -  they amused themselves by diving repeatedly under the bottom of the vessel….

August 2nd 1836

….. A wild looking savage cautiously made his appearance. As I had provided myself with knives, color’d handkerchief, axes, various color’d beads etc  I held out for his acceptance a string of large blue beads which glittering in the sun’s rays, was too great a temptation to resist….”

The log book kept by William Tattersall on a voyage of the Protector from London to India and back, 1827-1828 has full entries, many of them dealing with difficulties with the crew:

“Sunday 10th June 1827

At ten minutes before 9 o clock Joseph Harris seaman in the act of cleaning the storage began with the abusive language to one of the other seamen. He was told to desist by the office of the Deck and to remain quiet. He swore he would  never remain quiet while he was in the ship. He likewise used some very abusive language to the Officer – he then ordered him to be put in Irons on the Poop….”

It also has good detail on the cargo of copper, saltpetre, indigo and rice and the deaths of some of the crew, either through sickness or through being lost overboard.

We also include LOG/C/76 which is a letterbook belonging to Captain Joseph Huddart of the Royal Admiral covering 1783-1786. Included are copies of interesting letters to him from the Court of Directors at East India House giving him rules he should follow including: not to board any goods other than those for the Company, to keep the seamen sober, to stock the ship with as much salt provisions as need for the voyage, not to get into debt with the Chinese and not to take on board any slaves from Macao.

The ships’ logs held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich are a rich source and provide scholars with very useful detail on the voyages of the East India Company over a long time period, the life of its seamen and trade with local communities.