"East India Company" Topic

Does anyone know a good book or site with illustrations of the different EIC ships and their appearance? I can find lots of bits here and there but it would be really good to have even an Osprey type book on the subject.

Do you mean the HEIC ships themselves or the local opposition? It's difficult finding anything about the HEIC ships. Most of the East Indiamen would be pretty much like any other European vessel of the period. Google HMS Trincomalee, based at Hartlepool Quays. It is a frigate built in Ceylon in 1815 or 16. EIC ships tended to be teak built.
Many of the "country" ships were locally built and were more like the local vessels, Kotyas, Sambuks, Grabs (Ghurabs) etc. Snows were also used a lot. These resemble a brig but have a jack mast a short distance behind the mizzen that carried the driver sail. They were developed from ship rigged vessels rather than from brigs. Over the last couple of years I've gathered a lot of information about the various navies and ship types used. Unfortunately, my hard drive crashed and I've lost over half a terrabite's worth of books, plans, photos and documents, including most of the information on the Indian navies. Most books just give history and hint at craft types, though there are paintings of Indiamen being attacked by Grabs and Gallivats.
Jeffrey Knudsen may be able to tell you more. I've just ordered the lovely new Mediterranean vessel models from him and he has several Indian vessels on the stocks.
Search facebook for "A History of Maratha Navy and Merchantships" It's a free download.
There are also "Indian Shipping. A History Of The Sea-Borne "Trade And Maritime Activity Of The Indians From The Earliest Times" 1912 by Radhakumud Mookerji, M.A.", "British Seapower and the Mysore Wars of the Eighteenth Century" by Philip Macdougall in "The Mariner's Mirror" Volume 97, number 4 Nov.2011

"Trade In The Eastern Seas 1793-1813." 1937 By C. Northcote Parkinson

"Mast and Sail in Europe and Asia" 1906 H. Warington Smythe

"The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship" London 1794 all of which are available online as e-books. Hope this is of help to you.

Thanks – I'll check those out.

The book you want is :

Lords of the East: The East India Company and its Ships (1600-1874)
by Jean Sutton, Conway Maritime Press, 2000.

Profusely illustrated in both color and black and white.

OBW

Here is a French one repurposed by the US:

Wiki – USS Bonhomme Richard

I've seen some internet pictures showing the sides completely smashed in – it sank after the battle:

Wiki – Battle of Flamborough Head 1779

I'm not suggesting that the EIC did not operate ships of a wide variety of types and sizes, but the ship popularly known as an "East Indiaman" bore a good resemblance to a British 2-decked 64 gun ship of about 1400 tons burthen. They were not as heavily armed, though, carrying a gun armament approximately equivalent to an 18-lbr frigate IIRC. They were, however, on odd occasions taken in hand by the RN and pressed into service as 64's.

B

As in Bligh's command at Copenhagen:

link

From any decent distance, assuming they were painted similar to a contemporary English warship, they would be hard to distinguish from one.

Ask Linois:

link

The EIC had a huge range of ships, not just the big ones. Some did indeed become 3rd, 4th or 5th rates in the Royal navy but see this link : link

Admiral Linois, indeed. An interesting character.
Hoodwinked in the Indian Ocean, but then goes on to rebuff Saumarez at Algeciras, capture HMS Hannibal, drive off HMS Venerable outside of Cadiz and then having the good sense to survive the Napoleonic War to enjoy several decades of retirement.

;-)

B

Should I assume you are only interested in the English East India Company?

There is also the Dutch who started it all with the VOC. There ships were different until about mid 18th century when they started to use English designers.

The French also had an East India company as did other powers in Europe.

Actually, I'm interested in all Napoleonic Merchant ships but I figured the British EIC was a good place to start looking as a general representation of types.