"What if? HEIC in Crimea?" Topic

Just wondering…

What if the British govt., instead of sending half the army in Britain out to the Crimea, the govt. had commissioned ("hired") the Honorable East India Company to send an army from India to conduct operations instead? Would the HEIC have been more successful at less cost? For example, the HEIC seemed to be able to conduct operations with a better management of logistics.

Just a thought…

They may have been better able logistically but would they have been any more survivable during the Crimean winter? After all, most of the HEIC operations were conducted in the more favorable climes of India rather than the more severe climes of the Russian Black Sea coast.

Jim

Might there have been a mutiny?

The climes of India were every bit as inhospitable as those of the Crimea in their way, weren't they? And it's hard to see the corporate incentive for the HEIC. Where's the return on investment?

Related to this, though, and not a what-if but an actual historical intervention from India: the Anglo-Persian War of 1856-1857
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This was the setting for one of Mark's excellent Christmas specials back in 2015:
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A little difficult, don't forget that Suez channel didn' exist until ten yrs after Crimea, imagine send such an army on sea, with all the logistical nightmares such a transport would've caused. The HEIC was, after all, an economical enterprise, what they would've gained from such an expedition?

Interesting point about Suez. That said, I would imagine as Egypt was a tributary state of the Ottoman Empire (and do not forget, sent a naval detachment and troops in answer to the Sultan's call upon its obligations), that an arrangement could have been made had Britain called on the HEIC for support. Furthermore, the HEIC Marine's steam vessels could be used to avoid the vagaries of the Monsoon cycle.

As a few examples. The Honourable Company's Ship, or HCS Hugh Lindsay (1829; 4x guns) was the first steamship to be built in Bombay, and was then used to pioneer the mail route between Bombay and Suez. The paddle steam frigate, INS Memnon (1841; 2× 68-pounder & 4× 32-pounder guns) was used during a short span, from January to August 1843, to carry mail and passengers "to and from" between Bombay and Suez.

So… assemble a force at Bombay, ship with the aid of steam vessels to Suez, march up to the coast of the Med' -- though not to Port Said, of course, as it was not established until 1859. But Damietta (Tamiathis in the Hellenistic era) was a possibility. It had figured as an Arab port in the trade route to India and Tang China. But it might have been more advisable to go the shorter distance across the desert from Suez to Cairo, and then use river transport to Alexandria. There, the Royal Navy could transport the force to Crimea…

Just a thought. An interesting idea, mayhap, for a "what if" game in one's local group. Or at a convention -- whenever the receding of the CoVid finally allows real convention gaming to pick up again?

I could see a brigade or two being "hired out" but not the entire operation. I think that "home units" would jealously guard the chance to engage in European Operations as their home turf.

Much like the Active Duty Army does today, I might add…