CHAPTER VII THE BUILDING OF THE COMPANY’S SHIPS

Now, before we proceed with the further voyages and trading of these Indiamen, we shall find it very interesting if we attempt to paint the picture of the building of these ships. Happily the data handed down are of such a nature that we can learn practically all that we should like to know on the subject.

The reader will remember that the ships which went on the first and second voyages had been obtained by purchase. But, then, since it was obvious that more ships would be required as the trade increased and losses occurred by wrecks, the Company had to look out for additions to their small fleet. It was then that they were confronted with a big problem. First of all, England was still a comparatively new-comer into the position of an ocean-going shipowner, as distinct from Portugal, Spain, Venice and Genoa. Practically all her shipping consisted either of fishing or coasting craft. Therefore she possessed only a very small supply of what could be called in those days large vessels. This supply had been still further depleted by the purchases which the Dutch East India companies had made from English owners at the beginning of the East Indian boom. The result was that those very78 few big ships which remained in England were at a premium. To voyage round the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean, able to fight stalwart Portuguese craft and to carry well a heavy cargo, in addition to provisions for many months, demanded a big-bellied ship of exceptional strength; and that was why the Mare Scourge (which had been built for privateering) was just the thing.

But now the owners of the small amount of big shipping that still survived, in consequence of the big financial success which the East India Company had made from their first two voyages, were determined not to let them have any more ships except at very high prices. The rates which these sellers now asked were preposterous—as much as ￡45 a ton being demanded. The East India Company, being therefore in the position of needing ships and yet unable to purchase such at a reasonable figure, were compelled to decide on building for themselves. This dates from the year 1607, and a yard was leased at Deptford, the first two craft thus built being the Trade’s Increase, mentioned in the last chapter, and the Peppercorn, both of which went out under Sir Henry Middleton in the spring of 1610. From the first this change of policy was found to be justified, for the Company was able to build their ships at ￡10 a ton instead of ￡45, which meant the very handsome saving of ￡38,500 in the case of a ship the size of the Trade’s Increase—or two ships equal to her tonnage.

THE LAUNCH OF THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA COMPANY’S SHIP “EDINBURGH”
(CAPTAIN HENRY BAX).

(By courtesy of Messrs. T. H. Parker Brothers)

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In this yard before very long the Company were employing no fewer than five hundred ships’ carpenters, caulkers, joiners and other workmen. The result was that by the year 1615 the Company had79 built more ships in those short eight years than any other trade had done. Altogether they had owned during that period twenty-one able ships, and by the year 1621 the Company owned not less than 10,000 tons of shipping, employing as many as 2500 seamen. When we consider that even as late as the year 1690 the whole population of England was less than 5,500,000, and that of this number the seafaring people were a very small figure, it is obvious what this great East India Company meant to the country, with its wealth, enabling large sums of money to be spent in wages to seamen, workmen and factors. After the Company had been trading only twenty years there were about 120 of these factors alone. But, in addition, the Company was paying out large sums of money for the relief of seamen’s widows and their children. I will not burden the reader with statistics, but I may be allowed to state that up to November 1621 the Company had exported woollen goods, lead, iron, tin and other commodities from England to the value of ￡319,211. From the East these ships had brought back cargoes which had been purchased in the East for the sum of ￡375,288. But you will appreciate the profit when it is stated further that these cargoes were sold in England for ￡2,044,600. As against this there was always the possibility of losing the ships and the cargoes in their holds either outward or homeward bound. There was the cost of building and upkeep of ships and dockyard. There was the heavy expense, too, of victualling the ships for many months, the purchasing of English merchandise, the various stores, the wages of captains, officers and crews, and factors, as well as the payment of customs. And80 though it is perfectly true that the average profit made by the first twelve voyages was not less than 138 per cent., yet we must remember that the voyages were never made in less than twenty months and often extended to three and four years.

So also we must remember that after the arrival in this country of the goods from India they were sold at long credits—even as much as eighteen months and two years. Owing to the irregularity of the factors in keeping and transmitting their accounts, the concerns of the voyage could not be finally adjusted under six or eight years. “Taking the duration of the concern at a medium of seven years,” says Macpherson in his “History of European Commerce with India,” “the profit appears to be somewhat under twenty per cent. per annum.” The current rate of interest in those days was about 8 per cent., so that 20 per cent. could not be deemed for that time a very abnormal rate of remuneration when we consider the amount of enterprise required at the outset, and the vast risks which necessarily had to be run. Included in these profits were also the results of privateering and bartering. Between the years 1601 and 1612 the profits ranged from 95 to 234 per cent., with the exception of the year 1608, when both ships were wrecked.

Nowhere was the Company’s system of thoroughness better shown than in the completeness and organisation of her shipyard. The East India Company took itself very seriously and arrogated to itself all the dignity and self-importance which its unique prerogatives permitted. The Court was presided over by the Governor and it had its own rules of procedure. “Every man,” for instance, “speak81ing in the Court shall stand up and be bareheaded, and shall addresse his speach to the Gouernour or Deputy in his absence.” So runs one of the Company’s rules. Now the connecting link, so to speak, between the Company and its ships was the man who was known as the ship’s husband, one of its salaried servants. When the Court were met to discuss the plans for the yearly voyages to India, the husband had to attend in order to learn what shipping would be required. He then had to draw out a table of the proportion of victuals and other necessaries for each ship and to see that such were provided. After being got together these stores were then placed in the Company’s warehouses. In addition to being the victualler of the ships he was responsible also for providing the amount of iron likely to be required—“yron both English and Spanish”—and had to deliver it to the smiths at Deptford yard for the rudder irons and other purposes, and also to the coopers for making the hoops of the casks. The husband was also responsible for the supervision of the clerks and for keeping the account-books, the stores in the London warehouses being under the care of a “Clerke of the Stores.”

In the Deptford yard large stocks of “timber, planckes, sheathing-boards, and treenayles” had to be maintained by officials called “purveyers,” or, as we should name them nowadays, “buyers.” These men had to see to the purchasing of all kinds of wood used. It was kept in the Company’s private timber-yards at Reading, whence it was put into barges and so brought down the Thames to Deptford. The trenails were the old-fashioned means of fastening a ship’s timbers and planking and had existed from the82 times even of the Romans and the Vikings. They were small wooden pegs—“tree-nails”—driven in something after the appearance of the modern rivet, but minus the head. The sheathing-boards were a very necessary protection for the ship’s hull in hot climates against the insidious attacks of the worm. (In another chapter will be found an instance of this.) There was also employed a “measurer of timber and plancke,” whose job was to go down to the waterside and mark the timber.

But it was the “Clarke of the Yard” who had the supervision of the shipwrights, the “cawlkers,” carpenters and labourers, and one portion of his duties was to see that the men “doe not loyter in the Taphouse.” For the Company certainly allowed such a tap-house in their yard, which was “lycensed by the Companie from yeare to yeare” to certain persons on condition that they retailed the beer at not more than six shillings the barrel and not less than “three full pynts of Ale measure for a penny.” The tap-house also sold to the workmen of the yard such victuals as bread, “pease,” milk, porridge, eggs, butter, cheese, but they were not allowed to sell anything else, nor were they allowed to sell to any person other than one of the Company’s workmen in the yard.

The whole of the work at the yard was subdivided under so many responsible heads of departments, just as it is to-day in any shipyard. The Master Shipwright’s duties were to build and repair the Company’s ships and to design the “plots and models compleat, of all the new ships.” And he was forbidden to build ships for anyone else except this Company. It is significant of our modern system83 of extreme division of labour that the duties of ship-designer and ship-builder have become quite separate and distinct.

Then there was another important official attached to the Company, known as the “Master-pilot.” “The Mr Pylot his office is to commaund and order the workes which concerne the setting up and taking downe of Masts, Yards, Rigging, unrigging and proportioning the quantities, sorts and sizes of Cordage to the Companies ships ... and to use care and diligence ... that the Company may not be ouercharged with idle, unskilfull, or a needlesse number of workmen, or in the rate of their wages.” This same master-pilot had to survey the Company’s ships at Deptford and Blackwall and to see that, after being launched, they were safely moored. He had also to see that the canvas given out was duly made into sails, and was further responsible that the Company’s ships set forth up to time from Deptford, Blackwall and Erith. In addition he took charge of them whilst in the Thames to “pylot downe the Companies ships to Eirth and Grauesend, attending them there untill they shall be dispatched into the Downes.” So also when they came back from India he would pilot them up from Gravesend “untill they be safely moored at an Anchor, or indocked at Blackwall.” This official was assisted in the supervision of cordage by a man called the “Boatswaine Generall.”

The treasurers looked after the Company’s accounts, and once a week they handed to the “Purcer-Generall” the sums of money for paying the wages of the sailors and labourers: also the “harbour wages” to “officers and Maryners, who84 goe the Voyage.” Every ship of course also carried its own “purcer,” who with their mates had to look after the lading, the ship’s accounts and the conditions of the victuals on board, etc.

After the end of the day’s work the Clerk of the Works would go round the yard to see that there was no risk of fire breaking out owing to negligence in respect of the pitch cauldrons or other instances. The yard boasted of a “porter of the lodge,” and as soon as the workmen had done for the day watchmen came on duty in the yard, where they remained until the bell rang next morning summoning the labourers back to their work. The Company insisted on these watchmen doing their supervision thoroughly, “often calling one to another to prevent sleepe, and euery houre when the clocke strikes” they were bidden to “walke round” and ring a bell in the yard.

The “Clarke of the Cordage” looked after the ropes, marlin, “twyne,” ordnance, “great shot,” pulleys, blocks and the like. The “Clarke of the Iron Works” was similarly responsible for all the anchors, nails, bolts, chain-plates, and so on, and had to look to these when the ships came home from the East. He was further responsible for the lead and copper. If an anchor or anything had to be made or repaired in this metal it was done by the Company’s smith on the yard.

The “Chirurgion Generall” and his deputy had their lodgings in the yard, and one or the other was bound to be in attendance daily from morning till night “to cure any person or persons who may be hurt in the Service of this Company, and the like in all their ships riding at an anchor at Deptford and Blackwall,85 and at Erith, where hee shall also keepe a Deputy with his Chest furnished, to remaine there continually, until all the said ships be sayled downe from thence to Grauesend.” And it is amusing to read that the duties of the “chirurgion” included that of cutting the “hayre of the carpenters, saylors, caulkers, labourers” and other workmen once every forty days “in a seemely manner, performing their works at Breakfast and Dinner times, or in raynie weather, and in an open place where no man may loyter or lye hidden, under pretence to attend his turne of trimming.” In addition this same surgeon had to report all persons who seemed to be decrepit or unfit: and every carpenter, sailor, labourer or workman in the yards or ships had to pay twopence every month out of his wages to the said “Chirurgion Generall”; so you may take it as certain that he was not the most popular of beings. He was also compelled to find “skilfull and honest chirurgions and their Mates” for the ships. The Company took special precautions to see that these vessels set out with all the medical comforts and supplies of those days, having regard to the changing climates and the heavy losses of life through scurvy and dysentery (or flux). Thus these medicine-chests had to be brought into the Company’s house fourteen days before the ships sailed, so that the doctors and apothecaries and other people appointed by the Committee dealing with this subject might make a full inspection.

In addition to the officials on the Thames there was also a “Keeper of Anchors and Stores in the Downes,” at Deal, who looked after the cables, hawsers, anchors and ships’ boats sent to the Downs, so that whenever any of the Company’s ships arrived86 there lacking any of these articles they could always be supplied. At Deptford yard there was every single trade represented that was employed in the construction and fitting out of a seventeenth-century ship. There were coopers and boatmakers and the carvers who deftly gave those fantastic decorations to the ships’ hulls. There were smiths and painters and riggers, but in addition to the large staff which were concerned with the ships themselves, there was another staff who had to look after the providing of the salt meat for the voyages. For the Company was determined to keep the profit of victuals to itself. This department was under the management of the “Clerk of the Slaughter-house,” his duties being to look after the killing, salting, pickling and packing of the “beefes and hogges.” This salt beef and pork comprised the main food of these sailormen to the Far East and back. They had no vegetables except dried peas and beans, no bread other than mouldy ship’s biscuit, and no fruit.

The Company included a “Committee for Entertaining of Marriners,” and they were on the look-out for “able men, unmarryed and approved saylors.” Many of these fellows were of the reckless, dare-devil type, coarse of morals and frequently drunk when ashore: yet heroic in a crisis, imprudent, contemptuous of danger, brutal and unruly. Many a young man—sailor and factor alike—was sent in these ships in order that he might be got out of the way after disgracing his family: and numbers of them never again set foot in England. If the seamen who were shipped happened to be married, the “Clarke of the Imprest” paid the wages allowed to their wives whilst the men were at sea. This official87 was also bound to pay the wages to the “marriners which shall returne home in the Companies ships, or to their Assignes.”

After the masters and their mates of the respective ships had been hired for a voyage, their names were entered under the list of harbour-wages, and they took their oaths openly in the Court of the Committees of the Company. After this they sought able and good mariners “whom they shall preferre for entertainment unto the Committees appointed to that businesse.” These masters were bound to sleep on board the ships to which they had just been appointed, every night, and there keep good order. They were also to appoint quartermasters and boatswains, who were to see that the victuals, provisions, stores and merchandise were properly stowed. The boatswain, gunner, cook, steward, carpenter and other officers were each responsible for their own special stores.

Within ten days after the arrival of their ship in the Thames from India the master was bound to deliver to the Governor of the Company four copies of his journal and other “worthy observations” of his voyage. When the ship was bound out the master was always to be on board and to assist the master-pilot. When the ship returned home, a Committee of the Company for the Discharge of the Ships was always present on board in order to see the hold opened. This was to prevent theft. The goods were then placed in lighters and one of the Company’s “trusty servants” then went in the latter to watch that no embezzlement occurred. The goods were then taken to Leadenhall, where they were sold. “The custome hath been used heretofore [i.e. prior88 to 1621] in selling the wares of this Company at a Generall Court, and the Remnants of small value in the Warehouses by the light of a candle,” and this custom was continued. Selling by the “light of a candle” was as follows:—The article was put up for auction, a small piece of candle burning the while. So long as that piece of candle was there the bids could go on, but as soon as it burned out the last bid was completed and no more could be made for that commodity.

Before the crew put to sea, two months’ wages were allowed ahead, and “gratifications” were also paid “unto worthy and well deserving persons.” In these ships there went out also the merchants, factors and supercargoes. Some, as we have already seen, founded factories where they landed and circumstances permitted: but later on there were factors resident in every port, just as each steamship company to-day has its own agents wherever the ships touch.

INDIA HOUSE—THE SALE ROOM.

(By courtesy of Messrs. T. H. Parker Brothers)

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The Deptford yard, which the Company leased from the year 1607 and used for the next twenty years, was of the greatest assistance to the Company. The best merchant ships in the country there came into being, were fitted out, repaired on their return, resheathed and then sent to sea in excellent condition. It was true that the saving in building for themselves was to the Company’s great benefit; but, on the other hand, the yard with all this staff and detail was found in the long run to be so costly that it swallowed up too much of the capital, which could more profitably have been employed in hiring ships. It was seen also that even with the carefulness expended in the construction of the Company’s ships,89 the latter became worn out after four voyages: so at the end of twenty years it was decided to give up this expensive yard and to revert to the original custom of hiring vessels as required. Later on we shall see that this system developed in a curious manner, but for the present we must go back to see the progress which the voyages of these early East Indiamen brought about in the Eastern trade. It took four months to fit out these ships for sailing again to the East, and the refit was very thorough. A large magazine of warlike stores to the value of ￡30,000 was kept always ready, and this was really a very useful asset in the country, since in the time of necessity the material could be used by the English navy. Even in the year 1626, within a few months of the closing down of the shipyard, the Company were so enterprising as to erect mills and houses for the manufacture of their own gunpowder, obtaining the saltpetre from the East, which of course came home in their own ships. If ever monopoly was allowed to have its own way, surely it never had such good opportunity as was vouchsafed to the East India Company, with its own shipyards, victualling, and its own particular trade with full cargoes each way and a high percentage almost assured. We are accustomed in this twentieth century to bewail the existence of “corners” and trusts: yet these are as nothing compared with the privileges which the East India Company enjoyed and so jealously guarded through generation after generation, through two centuries and well into a third. And that meant more than was really apparent. The whole world had not been developed and opened out as it is to-day. Rather this exclusive90 privilege meant the granting of about half the world to a select few, and the democratic spirit of the twentieth century would instantly revolt against any such condition of affairs. It must not be thought that there were not those who protested even in the seventeenth century. Some did certainly protest—in a very forcible manner—by cutting in as interlopers. But it was a short-lived victory and had no lasting effect.