20th century single funnel steam ship
THIS PHOTO HACKED AND REMOVED SEARCHING FOR IT
ANOTHER PAINTING BELOW 
bombay docks 19th centurySea shanty - Wikiwand
Folk music
Accompaniment
Folklorist
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.
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)
