The Indian Ocean (41 page)

Apart from storms, there were other natural hazards at sea. Edmund Barker in 1591 in Lancaster's ship, the first English expedition to the east, had just got around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean.

In the morning, toward ten of the clocke, we had a terrible clap of thunder, which slew foure of our men outright, their necks being wrung in sonder without speaking any word, and of 94 men there was not one untouched; whereof some were stricken blind, others were bruised in their legs and armes, and others in their brests, so that they voided blood two dayes after; others were drawen at length, as though they had bene racked. But (God be thanked) they all recovered, saving onely the foure which were slain outright. Also with the same thunder our mainemaste was torne very grievously from the heade to the decke, and some of the spikes, that were ten inches into the timber, were melted with the extreme heate thereof.
44

Men often provided additional hazards. For example, when Lobo's ship was in grave danger, they decided not to appeal for help from an accompanying Portuguese ship, for 'it was not a good thing for our ship's condition to be known on the other ship because its loss was so obvious that they would abandon us in order to reach Portugal more quickly so that those aboard could make a better sale of their spices.'
45

In February 1673 the Abbé Carré met a host of difficulties as he set off from Surat.

About midday, having shipped my baggage, food, and everything necessary for my voyage, in one of the Company's boats, I went in it to the large Surat roadstead, where there were twenty merchantmen preparing to sail for many oriental countries. I embarked in one belonging to Agha Rahimi, a leading Moor merchant of Surat. He arrived on board his ship at the same time as myself to give his last orders and to see her off, which was accomplished only with a great din and hubbub. A rich and influential Persian merchant, who had chartered half of the ship for his own use, on seeing
four large boats of extra merchandise intended to be brought on board the already laden ship, flew into a furious rage with the ship's master. The latter, for some 200 écus more freight, was quite prepared to risk his ship, which had 500 passengers and more than a million écus worth of cargo, by overloading it. There have been tragic examples of this danger recently, as four good ships were lost last year on this account, while leaving the Surat roadstead. The merchants who were passengers all took the part of the Persian and were against Aghe Rahimi, threatening to leave his ship, if he put on any more cargo. He was therefore compelled to send back this extra merchandise to Surat; but, before leaving us, he recouped himself for the loss of this freight by raising the fares for the voyage to Persia, and making us all pay double the amount generally charged for it.

Even once the voyage actually got under way things did not improve.

Our nakhoda, in concert with the ship's captain, seeing the large number of passengers on board, now asserted their rights in regard to accommodation in a surprising way; and I can safely say that no lodging in Paris was as dear as the places in this ship for the month's voyage. The ship's state-room had been hired before departing for 1,000 écus [£225] by our rich Persian merchant for his half-dozen wives, as he wished to keep them out of sight of the rest of the passengers and under his eye. The two middle-sized cabins under the poop each cost 300 écus [£67.50], and other small places and corners six or seven hundred livres [£45–47.50]. Rich merchants were paying such sums to keep their wives in seclusion; and as there were a great number of the latter on this voyage, there was considerable difficulty in finding accommodation for them. I had arranged matters with the captain, who gave me a suitable place near him, where I was not inconvenienced in any way.
46

The Abbé whiled away his time on the voyage with mild flirtations with the 'half-dozen wives'.

Increasingly during our period local traders and travellers preferred to travel on European ships, or at least ships with European crews. They were considered to be safer, and less vulnerable to piracy. Yet even this did not always guarantee an agreeable passage. The Persian ambassador, Sulaiman, set off from Coromandel on an English ship bound for Thailand.

As our port of destination was not very far off the captain did not think it necessary to take on large amounts of food but as it happened the wind died down, the food became scarce and all aboard were reduced to the most dire circumstances. During those days a useless piece of bread six months old, all sour and full of worms and ants would be eaten without the least hesitation. That old crust seemed to be the finest honey.
47

These could well be extreme examples. We have to assume that most voyages were more or less routine, with boredom the main hazard for the passengers. Jean Aubin recreated such a voyage from Goa to Hurmuz in the early sixteenth century, which may stand as a pattern of a 'normal' passage. The ship concerned was a cranky old tub which had belonged to the Bijapuri governor of Goa. It was captured in 1510 when the Portuguese took the city, and renamed
Santa Maria do Monte
. With a cargo of rice and iron it took seventy-seven days to get to Hurmuz, and then had to wait for the right monsoon to get back to Goa. The whole, rather minor, voyage took a year. On the outward voyage there were 140 on board, six cows, and 174 tons of cargo. It brought back seventy-one horses. The captain was Italian, most of the crew Muslim, including the pilots and the bombardiers, and even the musicians. There were several passengers, some Portuguese and some Armenian. The Portuguese had nine slaves with them, who helped on the ship. There were also four women, and with them seven servants and family members. All in all it was a very normal and undramatic voyage.
48

Voyages on the rivers of northern India could even be quite relaxing and pleasant. In the 1740s a French visitor to Bengal travelled up river on a bazara, a long and light boat with a roof covering the passengers. His one had sixteen oars. They were shaped like a balloon, that is lower in the middle and high at both ends, this being so that when they ran aground on the shallow parts of the river they could be easily refloated. 'These kinds of boats are extremely convenient. In this one there was a quite spacious room where two of us slept in comfort, and another in the rear where the third person slept. A boat with kitchen arrangements followed us', and he also had his interpreter with him, and someone to carry his parasol. They proceeded at a leisurely average of six leagues, about twelve miles, a day.
49

So agreeable was river travel that some people, both Indians and Europeans, actually went boating for fun. The Portuguese in Macau and Goa sometimes set off in the evening for a cruise. Dean Mahomet arrived at Dacca, and noticed

the residence of a grand Nabob, who, at his accession to the throne, conformable to an old custom, something similar to that of the Doge of Venice on the Adriatic, enjoys a day's pleasure on the river, in one of the most curious barges in the world, called a samsundar [a processional barge]. It is sheathed with silver, and in the centre is a grand eminence of the same, on which his crown is placed on the day of coronation; nearer the stern is a brilliant seat encompassed with silver rails, and covered with a rich canopy embroidered with gold, under which he reclines in easy majesty. This boat and another of considerable value, that conveys his attendants, are estimated at a lack [100,000] of rupees. He is accompanied by a number of the most distinguished personages, and there are no bounds to the lavish waste of money expended on this occasion, in order to aggrandize the pomp of this ancient ceremony.
50

The information that we have on ship sizes at this time is rather patchy. The Surat fleet around 1700 included over 100 vessels, mostly medium size of perhaps 200 or 300 tons. Some Indian ships, especially those owned by the political elite, seem to have been much bigger. Saris in the Red Sea in 1612 measured two ships belonging to the great Mughal noble Abdur-Rahim. The
Rahimi
was 153 feet from stem to stern post, and her rake from the post aft was 17 feet. From the top of her sides in breadth was 42 feet, and her depth 31 feet. The
Muhammadi
was 136 feet long, with a rake of 20 feet, breadth of 41, and depth of 29
1
½2. Her main mast was 108 feet, and her main yard 132 feet.
51
By comparison the early Portuguese voyages were accomplished in small ships. In 1497–99 Gama's largest ship was 100 feet in length. The smallest ship ever to do the carreira between Goa and Lisbon, in 1535–36, was a foist 20 feet long and 6 feet wide!
52
The largest VOC ships were over 50 metres long, comparable then with the Mughal ships in the Red Sea. The
Batavia
, the pride of the fleet wrecked off the Western Australian coast in 1629 was 59 metres long.

Many of the great Portuguese naus, and later company ships, were made in Asia. Due to cheaper labour and materials, the cost per ton in India was only half what it was in Europe. One reason for this was that caulking, which was done for European ships built in Europe, was very expensive, and in any case this technique had no advantage over the cheaper traditional north Indian method of rabetting. Indian ships continued to use cables and cordage of coir, not hemp ropes, but coir was perfectly adequate so long as it was kept in salt water to keep it strong.
53

Indian shipbuilders began to pick up some European techniques, such as some use of iron nails in construction. This was done especially for ships engaged in oceanic, as opposed to coastal, trade. European observers appreciated that Indian craftspeople were very skilled, and quite ready to draw on European expertise if this appeared to be superior. Bowrey found ships for local owners being built in Coromandel.

Very Expert Master builders there are Severall here who have most of their dependancie Upon the English, and indeed learnt theire art and trade from some of them by diligently Observeinge the ingenuitie of Some that built Ships and Sloops here for the English East India Company and theire Agents, Soe that they build very well and give good reasons for what they doe, and launch with as much discretion as I have Seen in any part of the world....

He particularly commented on a huge 1,000 ton ship belonging to the sultan of Golconda, which was being hauled out to be repaired.
54

In the past few centuries Europeans had been able to improve considerably the ratio between ship size and crew needed. In the fourteenth century one man was needed for each ton of capacity, but by around 1600 the ratio was about one man for every four tons. This ratio appears to apply to Indian ships also.
55

The crews on European ships in the Indian Ocean were usually as much Asian as
European. The officers might be Dutch or English or some other European, as in the ship we described going from Goa to Hurmuz, but the rest were locals. Carletti travelled in a Portuguese ship from Macau to Melaka.

They were commanded by a Portuguese captain, pilot, coxswain, mate, and other officers, but were manned by Arab, Indian, Turkish, and Bengali sailors, who gladly serve for so much per month, taking care of their own expenses under the rule of their head man, who commands them and whom they call their saranghi [sarang], and who also belongs to one of the aforesaid nations. They make their understandings with him, recognize and obey him, so that even the Portuguese captain, the master and pilot of the ship, is commanded by this saranghi. And they all embark with their wives or concubines, which as a sight is no less indecent than filthy and unseemly, and which causes such confusions as it is impossible to make clear.
56

Sailors seem to have been ready to serve wherever there was work to be had. In 1625 a small Portuguese fleet set off to attack some EIC ships. Of the men on board the Portuguese ships, more than 200 were English, Scottish, Irish and Dutch. Many of the local crew were Muslims, and they seem to have been happy to serve even on ships attacking Muslim ships. The Portuguese fleet sent off to relieve Mombasa from its Muslim conquerors was largely Muslim. On the four ships in this fleet in 1698 there were 126 'white' and 376 'non-white' seamen and gunners.
57

Many ships carried large numbers of passengers. All of them carried merchants big and small, but the most passengers were carried on the ships going to the Red Sea full of intending hajjis, and European ships bringing out people to work in the European maritime empires. The largest hajj ships could carry 1,000 or 1,500 passengers. The great Portuguese naus on the outward bound voyage typically had a crew of 120–200, and 500 to 1,000 passengers, mostly soldiers. In Mozambique up to 400 slaves could be added to the ship's complement.
58
The VOC ships may have carried fewer people: 200 on the outward voyage, and only about 110 on the return voyage.
59

On the European ships officials had to take account of the likelihood of high mortality en route. Over the sixteenth century about 10 per cent of those on board Portuguese ships were lost to disease and shipwreck (see page 138). Gama's pioneering voyage suffered very high attrition: he lost 63 per cent of personnel, and 65 per cent of tonnage during the round-trip.
60
The VOC did much better: they lost only a little over 2 per cent of tonnage on the outward voyages, and 4 per cent on the homeward. The worst area was the south African coast.
61

Mortality, and also speed, improved greatly for the Europeans as they became more accustomed to the wind patterns and best routes. Gama's fastest ship took 733 days for the return voyage, but on the next expedition, led by Cabral, the return voyage for six ships varied between 471 and 505 days. These times include time in port: the actual sailing times of Cabral's ships was 179 out, and between 178 and 191 return. This became more or less the norm for the Portuguese: 180 days out,
200 return, and a total time of 500 days for the round trip. The fastest voyage out was 106 days, and return 130.
62
In the seventeenth century the usual time for an outward voyage from Europe was 6–8 months, and the return 7–9 months. A very fast return trip was 11 months, but the usual return time was 16–19 months.