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A Note on the Shipbuilding in Bengal in the Late Eighteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2011

Bhaswati Bhattacharya
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Extract

Both overseas trade and shipbuilding in India are of great antiquity. But even for the early modern period, maritime commerce is relatively better documented than the shipbuilding industry. When the Portuguese and later the North Europeans entered the intra-Asian trade, many of the ships they employed in order to supplement their shipping in Asia were obtained from the Indian dockyards. Detailed evidence with regard to shipbuilding, however, is very rare. It has been pointed out that the Portuguese in the sixteenth century were more particular than their North-European counter-parts in the following centuries in providing information on seafaring and shipbuilding. Shipbuilding on the west coast has been discussed more than that on the eastern coast of India, particularly the coast of Bengal. Though Bengal had a long tradition of shipbuilding, direct evidence of shipbuilding in the region is rare. Many changes were brought about in the history of India and the Indian Ocean trade of the eighteenth century, especially after the 1750s. When the English became the largest carriers of Bengal's trade with other parts of Asia, this had an impact on the shipbuilding in Bengal. It was in their interest that the British in Bengal had their ships built in that province.

Type
Transfer of Science and Technology
Information
Itinerario , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , November 1995 , pp. 167 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1995

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References

Notes

1 Arasaratnam, S., Maritime India in the Seventeenth Century (Delhi 1994) 246.Google Scholar The paper presented by Dr RJ. Barendse is, however, based on the sources of the Dutch East India Company in the seventeenth century.

2 Ibid., 257; also, private communication with Prof. Om Prakash, November, 1994.

3 Hamilton, A., A New Account of the East Indies II, Foster, W. ed. (London 1930) 12Google Scholar.

4 Nandy, S.C., Life and Times of Cantoo Babu (Calcutta 1978) 522Google Scholar.

5 Mookerji, R.K., A History of Indian Shipping (Calcutta 1922) 212Google Scholar.

6 Cited inMookerji, , Indian Shipping, 122Google Scholar; also see Hamilton, , A New Account II, 15Google Scholar.

7 Bowrey, T., A Geographical Account of the Countries Round the Bay of Bengal 1669 to 1679, Hakluyt Society Second Series XII, Temple, R.C. ed. (Cambridge 1905) 162–163.Google Scholar For vessels employed in inland navigation, see Mundy, Peter, The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608–1667 I, Temple, R.C. ed. (London 1914)Google Scholar; Manrique, Sebastien, Travels of Sebastien Manrique, 1649–1653, Luard, C. Eckford and Holsten, H. trans. (2 vols.)Google Scholar.

8 Arasaratnam, , Maritime India, 257Google Scholar; also private communication with Prof. Om Prakash.

9 Grose, J., A Voyagelo the East Indies I (1772) 108Google Scholar; also see Qaisar, A.J., ‘Shipbuilding in the Mughal Empire in the Seventeenth Century’, Indian Economic and Social History Review 5 (1968)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ibid., The Indian Response to European Science and Technology (New Delhi 1982)Google Scholar.

10 Parkinson, C.N., Trade in the Eastern Seas, 1793–1813 (Cambridge 1937) 321–322Google Scholar.

11 Stavorinus, J.S., Voyages to the East Indies III, Wilcocke, Samuel Hull trans. (London 1798) 17–18, 20–22Google Scholar.

12 Marshall, P.J., East Indian Fortunes: The British in Bengal in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford 1976) 62Google Scholar.

13 Ibid.

14 The facts and figures with regard to shipbuilding in Calcutta towards the end of the eighteenth century have been taken mainly from Phipps, J. comp , A Collection of Papers Relative to Shipbuilding in India with Description of the Various Indian Woods Employed therein, Their Qualities, Uses and Value; also, a Register Comprehending all the Ships and Vessels Built in India to the Present Times with Many Other Particulars Respecting Indian Shipping and the External Commerce of Bengal (Calcutta 1840)Google Scholar.

15 Kling, B.B., Partner in Empire: Dwarakanath Tagore and the Age of Enterprise in Eastern India (Calcutta 1981) 62Google Scholar.

16 Parkinson, , Trade in the Eastern Seas, 332–333Google Scholar.

17 Ibid., 332.

18 In the early eighteenth century laskars, while at sea, were paid Rs 5 a month: Marshall, , East Indian Fortunes, 68Google Scholar.

19 A.J. Qaisar, ‘Shipbuilding in the Mughal Empire’.

20 Marshall, , East Indian Fortunes, 68Google Scholar.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid.

23 Kling, , Partners in Empire, 90Google Scholar.

24 In a recent article S. Sangwan, however, has noted that the Snake was the first steam vessel built in India; see his ‘Indian Response to European Science and Technology’, BJHS 21 (1988) 211–232CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Parkinson, , Trade in the Eastern Seas (Cambridge 1937) 362Google Scholar.

26 Ibid., 320.

27 For a discussion on the introduction of steamboats in India see Sangwan, S., ‘Technology and Imperialism in the Indian Context The Case of Steamboats 1819–1839’ in: Mead, T. and Walker, M. eds, Science, Medicine and Cultural Imperialism (New York 1991) 60–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.