ANOTHER PAINTING BELOW
bombay docks 19th century
Sea shanty - Wikiwand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sailors sang shanties while performing shipboard labor.
A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty is a type of work song that was once commonly sung to accompany labor on board large merchant sailing vessels. The term shanty most accurately refers to a specific style of work song belonging to this historical repertoire.
However, in recent, popular usage, the scope of its definition is
sometimes expanded to admit a wider range of repertoire and
characteristics, or to refer to a "maritime work song" in general.
Of uncertain etymological origin, the word shanty
emerged in the mid-19th century in reference to an appreciably distinct
genre of work song, developed especially in American-style merchant
vessels that had come to prominence in decades prior to the American Civil War.[1]
Shanty songs functioned to economize labor in what had then become
larger vessels having smaller crews and operating on stricter schedules.[2] The practice of singing shanties eventually became ubiquitous internationally and throughout the era of wind-driven packet and clipper ships.Indian Mail
"In 1897, Queen Victoria ruled over a quarter of world's population
and a fifth of its territory, all connected by the latest marvel of
British technology, the telegraph, and patrolled by the Royal Navy,
which was larger than the next two navies put together".
Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek 2006
Advertisement, probably of 1890 (coll. Juergen Klein)
Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I the East India Company was founded in 1600. Their ships took almost six months to sail from England to India round the Cape of Good Hope. Historians discovered also some "Overland Despatches" which in 1676 were carried through Mesopotamia. In 1698 Henry Tistew, British consul in Tripoli, agitated in vain for an "Overland Route" through Egypt, around 1775 George Baldwin organized it, but the Sultan excluded Christian merchantmen from the Red Sea. Baldwin was convicted (he escaped), in 1780 two couriers were arrested at Kosseir on the Red Sea and the captain shelled the city. In 1798 Napoleon started to conquer Egypt, with India and a Suez Canal as his final target. When he was defeated at Waterloo in 1815, he no longer could menace the way to the Indian Ocean.
An East Indiaman (via flickr.com)
The Steam Age
In 1822, only 15 years after the first commercial steamship was built by Robert Fulton in America, Arthur Anderson and Brodie M'Ghie Willcox proposed a steamship service from England to India, whereupon the governor of Calcutta, Lord Amherst, promised a reward for everyone who makes the journey in less than 70 days. A "Steam Committee" was called together by Lieutenant James Henry Johnston in Calcutta to get the paddle-steamer "Enterprize" of only 479 tons built in England at Gordon & Co. (the spelling "Enterprize" is in accordance with H.L. Hoskins, while generally "Enterprise" is written). On 16 August 1825 Johnston went aboard this small steamer on the voyage from Falmouth via the Cape of Good Hope to Calcutta, where he arrived after 113 days.
"Enterprize" (old publication)
Another idea of a steamship line in connection with the Overland Route through Egypt was pursued by the governor of Bombay, Mountstuart Elphinstone, and his successor, John Malcom. It was announced that the "Enterprize" should leave Bombay (Mumbai) for Suez. In the meantime the 27 years old Thomas Fletcher Waghorn, who had piloted the ship on the Hooghly river at Calcutta, got order by Lord Ellenborough of the East India Company to convey some British mail from London to India as a test by the way of Suez, where the "Enterprize" was to wait for him. His adventure was described by John K. Sidebottom ('The Overland Mail'): On 28th October Waghorn left London by an Eagle stage coach, crossed the Channel by steamer, learned in Paris that the Simplon was closed on account of snowfall, took the coach via the Mount Cenis, arrived at Trieste, missed an Austrian sailing-vessel which immediately before had left, tried in vain to overtake it by coach, then caught in Trieste a Spanish ship, paid the captain an immense sum, disembarked in Egypt where the Nile river boat stranded, changed to donkeys and reached in the end Suez on 8th December, but the "Enterprize" was not there. He rent an open boat without compass and arrived at Jeddah, Arabia, after other 6 1/2 days. There he learned that the "Enterprize" had been staying in India on account of engine troubles. Suffering from fever, Waghorn reached Bombay on 21st March 1830 aboard the sailing-vessel "Thetis". Reportedly he met aboard his rival James W. Taylor, who fought for an England - India steamer service, too. In the meantime a new paddle steamer, the "Hugh Lindsay" (411 gt), had left Bombay on 20th March 1830 and arrived at Suez on 2nd April. And in 1834 the steamer "Forbes" set out for the longer trip from Calcutta to Suez. With her 161 tons she was so tiny that even the cabins had to be filled with coal.
British mail steamer at Muscat (coll. v. Schweiger-Lerchenfeld)
The Euphrates Route
Already in the 17th century some 'Overland Dispatches' were conveyed on a route via Mesopotamia and the port of Basrah. After in 1877 the Sultan had banned Christian merchantmen from the Red Sea, England got permission to use the 'Dromedary Dak' through Mesopotamia. It proved useful after Napoleon had occupied Egypt in 1789. The mail took the way via Vienna, Bucharest and Constantinople, where every two weeks a Tartar rider departed to the east. Generally however, the mail was conveyed by the sailing ships of the East India Company round the Cape of Good Hope. After the struggle for a faster route had begun, James W. Taylor tried the Euphrates route when he returned from Bombay - and was killed by natives. An expedition to Mesopotamia was started by Francis Rawdon Chesney, who delivered a report to King William IV. It resulted in building the Euphrates river steamers "Euphrates" and "Tigris", tested in 1836 on the Euphrates. The "Tigris" capsized during a sandstorm. The "Euphrates" took over in October 1836 the mail from the "Hugh Lindsay" at Basrah, suffered an engine failure in the Lamlun swamps, the mail had to be reloaded to native boats, they were attacked by Arabs and finally the letters arrived in London three months late, whereupon the Government decided in favour of the Egyptian route
Via France and Egypt
Now the Steam Committees in India and the London "Times" took up the subject and in 1834 the House of Commons recommended extension of the Admiralty's Malta steamship-line to Alexandria, the port of Egypt. The East India Company introduced in 1837 the mail steamers "Berenice" and "Atalanta" on the Suez - Bombay line, then followed by other ships, providing a regular service, while the "Hugh Lindsay" was bound for trips to Basrah. On the Red Sea route, the main coaling station had been Mocha. Due to its limitations, coaling was relocated to Aden, occupied in 1839 in response to a pirates' attack. The Bengal Steam Fund commissioned in 1839 an own steamer, the "Precursor", aiming to connect also the capital Calcutta with Suez.
Unloading the Indian Mail at Calais, around 1880 (contemporary press)
Terminal at Calais, 19th century (contemporary press)
A British-French convention from 30th March 1836, completed on 10th May 1839, concluded the use of a mail route through France in order to reduce traveling time, first by coach, from 1847 step by step changed to train - which became famous as "La Malle des Indes". Cross-Channel steamer services had been opened in the 1820s and from the late 30s British steamers operating for the Post Office and French government-owned steamers provided regular services to and from Calais (see chapter Branch Lines/ Channel). The 12th August 1839 is the date of official mail departure through France, the track passengers had used already before. British Admiralty steamers provided a service from Marseilles via Malta and - as before - from Falmouth to Alexandria.
The Indian Mail route (published in1844)
Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek 2006
Advertisement, probably of 1890 (coll. Juergen Klein)
Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I the East India Company was founded in 1600. Their ships took almost six months to sail from England to India round the Cape of Good Hope. Historians discovered also some "Overland Despatches" which in 1676 were carried through Mesopotamia. In 1698 Henry Tistew, British consul in Tripoli, agitated in vain for an "Overland Route" through Egypt, around 1775 George Baldwin organized it, but the Sultan excluded Christian merchantmen from the Red Sea. Baldwin was convicted (he escaped), in 1780 two couriers were arrested at Kosseir on the Red Sea and the captain shelled the city. In 1798 Napoleon started to conquer Egypt, with India and a Suez Canal as his final target. When he was defeated at Waterloo in 1815, he no longer could menace the way to the Indian Ocean.
An East Indiaman (via flickr.com)
The Steam Age
In 1822, only 15 years after the first commercial steamship was built by Robert Fulton in America, Arthur Anderson and Brodie M'Ghie Willcox proposed a steamship service from England to India, whereupon the governor of Calcutta, Lord Amherst, promised a reward for everyone who makes the journey in less than 70 days. A "Steam Committee" was called together by Lieutenant James Henry Johnston in Calcutta to get the paddle-steamer "Enterprize" of only 479 tons built in England at Gordon & Co. (the spelling "Enterprize" is in accordance with H.L. Hoskins, while generally "Enterprise" is written). On 16 August 1825 Johnston went aboard this small steamer on the voyage from Falmouth via the Cape of Good Hope to Calcutta, where he arrived after 113 days.
"Enterprize" (old publication)
Another idea of a steamship line in connection with the Overland Route through Egypt was pursued by the governor of Bombay, Mountstuart Elphinstone, and his successor, John Malcom. It was announced that the "Enterprize" should leave Bombay (Mumbai) for Suez. In the meantime the 27 years old Thomas Fletcher Waghorn, who had piloted the ship on the Hooghly river at Calcutta, got order by Lord Ellenborough of the East India Company to convey some British mail from London to India as a test by the way of Suez, where the "Enterprize" was to wait for him. His adventure was described by John K. Sidebottom ('The Overland Mail'): On 28th October Waghorn left London by an Eagle stage coach, crossed the Channel by steamer, learned in Paris that the Simplon was closed on account of snowfall, took the coach via the Mount Cenis, arrived at Trieste, missed an Austrian sailing-vessel which immediately before had left, tried in vain to overtake it by coach, then caught in Trieste a Spanish ship, paid the captain an immense sum, disembarked in Egypt where the Nile river boat stranded, changed to donkeys and reached in the end Suez on 8th December, but the "Enterprize" was not there. He rent an open boat without compass and arrived at Jeddah, Arabia, after other 6 1/2 days. There he learned that the "Enterprize" had been staying in India on account of engine troubles. Suffering from fever, Waghorn reached Bombay on 21st March 1830 aboard the sailing-vessel "Thetis". Reportedly he met aboard his rival James W. Taylor, who fought for an England - India steamer service, too. In the meantime a new paddle steamer, the "Hugh Lindsay" (411 gt), had left Bombay on 20th March 1830 and arrived at Suez on 2nd April. And in 1834 the steamer "Forbes" set out for the longer trip from Calcutta to Suez. With her 161 tons she was so tiny that even the cabins had to be filled with coal.
British mail steamer at Muscat (coll. v. Schweiger-Lerchenfeld)
The Euphrates Route
Already in the 17th century some 'Overland Dispatches' were conveyed on a route via Mesopotamia and the port of Basrah. After in 1877 the Sultan had banned Christian merchantmen from the Red Sea, England got permission to use the 'Dromedary Dak' through Mesopotamia. It proved useful after Napoleon had occupied Egypt in 1789. The mail took the way via Vienna, Bucharest and Constantinople, where every two weeks a Tartar rider departed to the east. Generally however, the mail was conveyed by the sailing ships of the East India Company round the Cape of Good Hope. After the struggle for a faster route had begun, James W. Taylor tried the Euphrates route when he returned from Bombay - and was killed by natives. An expedition to Mesopotamia was started by Francis Rawdon Chesney, who delivered a report to King William IV. It resulted in building the Euphrates river steamers "Euphrates" and "Tigris", tested in 1836 on the Euphrates. The "Tigris" capsized during a sandstorm. The "Euphrates" took over in October 1836 the mail from the "Hugh Lindsay" at Basrah, suffered an engine failure in the Lamlun swamps, the mail had to be reloaded to native boats, they were attacked by Arabs and finally the letters arrived in London three months late, whereupon the Government decided in favour of the Egyptian route
Via France and Egypt
Now the Steam Committees in India and the London "Times" took up the subject and in 1834 the House of Commons recommended extension of the Admiralty's Malta steamship-line to Alexandria, the port of Egypt. The East India Company introduced in 1837 the mail steamers "Berenice" and "Atalanta" on the Suez - Bombay line, then followed by other ships, providing a regular service, while the "Hugh Lindsay" was bound for trips to Basrah. On the Red Sea route, the main coaling station had been Mocha. Due to its limitations, coaling was relocated to Aden, occupied in 1839 in response to a pirates' attack. The Bengal Steam Fund commissioned in 1839 an own steamer, the "Precursor", aiming to connect also the capital Calcutta with Suez.
Unloading the Indian Mail at Calais, around 1880 (contemporary press)
Terminal at Calais, 19th century (contemporary press)
A British-French convention from 30th March 1836, completed on 10th May 1839, concluded the use of a mail route through France in order to reduce traveling time, first by coach, from 1847 step by step changed to train - which became famous as "La Malle des Indes". Cross-Channel steamer services had been opened in the 1820s and from the late 30s British steamers operating for the Post Office and French government-owned steamers provided regular services to and from Calais (see chapter Branch Lines/ Channel). The 12th August 1839 is the date of official mail departure through France, the track passengers had used already before. British Admiralty steamers provided a service from Marseilles via Malta and - as before - from Falmouth to Alexandria.
The Indian Mail route (published in1844)
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