Indiaman

A Indiaman (literally: “man of the Indies”) was a Navire chartered or armed under license by the English Company of the Eastern Indies. Compagagnie of the Indies Orientales had a Monopole granted by the queen Elisabeth Ire of England for all the trade between the Cape of Good Hope and the Cape Horn. This monopoly was gradually restricted during 18th and 19th centuries. The Indiamen usually sailed between the England and the India while passing by the Cape of Good Hope; some served the China. The return was carried out road consequently. The complete tour took on average 18 months. The main ports served in India were Mumbai (Bombay at the time), Chennai and Kolkata (Calcutta).

The Indiamen were conceived to transport at the same time passengers and goods, while having the capacity to push back the attack of corsairs: their design made of it a category of ship with share. At the time of the Napoleonean wars, some indiamen carried a considerable armament; they were often painted in order to resemble warships. Some of these ships were even repurchased by the Royal Navy and, in certain cases, pushed back French attacks. One of these most known confrontations is the Bataille of Poulo Will have which was held in the Indian Ocean in 1804: a convoy made up of Indiamen and other trading vessels fought successfully against a French squadron ordered by the admiral of Linois.

The Indiamen were the largest trading vessels of current construction at the end of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th century; their tonnage generally lay between 300 to 1200 barrels. The Earl off Mansfield and the Lascelles , built with Deptford in 1795, and which counted among largest of the Indianmen , were repurchased by Royal Navy to be transformed into linerships of 56 guns. Renamed respectively HMS Weymouth pine and HMS Madras , they measured 1426 barrels, for 53,3 meters of overall length (175 feet), 44 m length of skittle (144 feet), 13,1 m broad (43 feet) and 5,2 m of Tirant of water (17 feet).

Another Indiaman , dating from the same time and with the remarkable history, is the Lord Warley of 1176 tons, built with the Perry building site in Blackwall (London) in 1795, then sold in Royal Navy and renamed HMS Calcutta . In 1803, it was used as transport of troops to establish a colony with Port Phillip (Australia), then to move it, a few years later, with Hobart in Tasmanie. HMS Calcutta was captured by the French in 1805 and was run by Royal Navy with broad of the Sicily in 1809.

The HMS Glatton, Indiaman acquired by Royal Navy, will take share with the combat of Camperdown and Copenhagen. It seems that the officers of Royal Navy did not appreciate to be affected on one of these militarized ships.

To be able to carry the heavy guns, the hull of the Indiamen was broader with the floating than on the level of the higher bridge (frégatée hull ), as it was the case usually for the warships of the time; the guns, placed on the higher bridge, were thus more close to the axis of the ship, which made it possible to preserve its stability. To increase the similarity with the warships, it was frequent that two yellow horizontal bands are painted on their sides by underlining the line of the ports.

These ships comprised two bridges, which would run of the poop to the prow, for the residences of the crew as well as a Dunette with the back; the poop deck and the bridge below were lit by galleries with square windows; to support the weight of these galleries the hull had full lines with the back. This penalizing provision was not generally by recovery on the types of ships built thereafter, which were consequently faster; the Indiamen were thus handicapped on trade route, especially when it was not necessary any more to arm the ships.

With the progressive reduction of the monopoly of the HEIC, the orders for these heavy and armed tradind ships decreased; in the years 1830, a new model of ship, more hurled and more rapid, made its appearance: the Frigate Blackwall, conceived for the China and highways to India, which approached more silhouette of the American Clipper S.

The wreck of one of largest the Indiamen , the Earl off Abergavenny , is always in bay of Weymouth, in the Dorset, England.

This word is also used as translation of Dutch Oostindiëvaarder of the Compagnie Dutchwoman of the Eastern Indies.

Some Indiamen

Sources

  • fleets of the companies of the Indies (1600 - 1857) , SHM: 5th Franco-English days of History of the Navy (1994, Lorient), Paris, 1996.

  • pH. Haudrère, Companies of the Eastern Indies: Three centuries of meeting between Eastern and Western (1600-1858) , the Desjonquère Editions, 2006 - ISBN 2-84321-083-6
  • Louis Mézin, Gerard Bouëdec, Philippe Haudrère, Companies of the Indies , ED. Ouest-France - 2005 - ISBN 2-73733-869-7

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