|
This page: [3. The East Indiaman Merchant Ship] One of the most important ships of this era in the evolution of sailing ship design was the merchant ship. It was this ship that carried the bulk of the merchandise upon which trade, business and the development of the world depended. These ships of necessity had to be armed to protect themselves from pirates and the predatory activities of many nations, among them the British, all of whom, considered it perfectly reasonable to capture the merchant ships of other nations. In fact, it could be argued that it was just this kind of activity that brought about the whole "trade" of piracy on the high seas! Nations frequently granted official permission to wealthy ship owners to cruise at large searching for likely captures. Sir Francis Drake, John Frobisher, Sir Walter Raleigh are famous names who practiced this kind of freebooting. They were called "privateers" because they were privately owned vessels acting on their own account - although they were expected to render generous portions of their "prizes" to the reigning monarch. Of course, many of these men were quite happy to act without any authority, however, if their activity happened to cause political embarrassment to the crown, then they were liable to be locked up upon their return - unless, of course, they could come across with a sufficient sum of money to purchase their freedom. Another word for that, of course, would be a bribe! As time passed, however, nations began to work out agreements regarding this sort of thing and it ceased to be tolerated, unless it was a time of war and then, of course, all bets were off and the merchant shipping of enemy nations once again became fair game. Naval captains and their crews (to a lesser extent) could become fabulously wealthy from the sale of such captures. These were called a "prize of war" and there were strict rules about how the prize money was apportioned. So, for these reasons merchant ships went armed and could often be difficult to tell apart from full fledged naval vessels. For further protection they often traveled in convoy and a fleet of well armed merchant men was a formidable force and not one that any right minded pirate would care to tamper with. Speed and capacity were important too and so ship owners
employed all the latest developments in ship design as they evolved.
Hull shapes changed slowly, but they did evolve and the rig became more
advanced with subtle but definite changes in sail plan. By the end of the
18th century ships had become quite advanced with the disappearance of
those towering fore and stern castles and a longer, flatter line to
the
The British East India Company was formed by Royal Charter in 1600 and lasted until 1834, when the charter was rescinded. In 1808, when the company was at its peak, it was operating fifty four ships (totaling more than 45,000 tons) between London, India and China. These East Indiamen - as they were called - left England carrying cargoes of household goods, wines and watches: they returned laden with spices, sugar, ivory and more often than not opium. The officers of this fleet were said to be the elite of the shipping world. For both the Dutch and the British East India Company it is fair to say that they ruled their worlds - and held influence that often far exceeded that of their respective governments. Both maintained fully fledged armies that were, in some cases, more effective than anything their governments could rely upon in the remote outposts in which they held sway. The British influence in India increased in power due almost entirely to the presence of this quasi-military force that in uniform and structure was almost identical to the British army itself. In books and stories you will often find these two organisations, which existed for one reason only, to make money out of their trading ventures for their shareholders back home, as the "honorable" companies - thus, The Honorable British East India Company. Of course, there were other smaller types of trading and merchant vessels employed from time to time, for different purposes and reasons. For example, the slave ships were usually fast schooners of two, and occasionally three, masts. These were fairly shallow bottomed craft capable of sailing close in shore to avoid the various naval ships that were, latterly at any rate, employed to discourage the trade. These craft were mostly fore & aft rigged, though sometimes they might have had a square top sail and even two on the fore mast. As such, they are not of great interest as far as these pages are concerned which are specifically focused on the evolution of square-rig. Then, again, there were many smaller square-rigged ships of two or three masts that carried various amounts and types of square sails which I may look at later.
This page: [3. The East
Indiaman Merchant Ship] [Page Top] |
.
My Web Portal
Go Retro
|
deck. There was still a break at the fore and poop deck, but
it was not the huge high tower of previously. There was still a
"tumblehome" in the rounded design of the hull and bulwarks -
the barrel-like shape of the hull you can see in earlier ships.
However, it was possible to discern the diminishing of this as the 19th
century advanced. The trim lean lines of the frigate began to be
seen more and more in the navies of the world, the first one of this type
being built in 1646. Her dimensions were approximately as follows:
length (approximately) 100ft., beam 26ft., depth 13 ft. She had an
armament of 32 to 44 guns and a crew compliment of about 130 men.
