A selection of paintings, drawings & jottings
The Wreck Of The President
Page 5
The President had sailed from England twenty-one months earlier on her fifth voyage to India. She sailed with another vessel, the Surat Merchant. Both ships were owned by the English East India Company which made its money by trading with places so far away that it was too difficult and dangerous for most people to compete with them.
The risks were great, but so were the rewards. Spices and silks fetched high prices in Europe. The Company was wealthy and powerful, and could make fortunes for it’s investors. By the standards of the times the crews were well paid and well fed, they had far better lives and prospects than they would have had on land. But these long voyages carried the risks of sickness, war, piracy and greatest of all, the weather.
The ‘East Indiamen’, as their ships were known, were the royalty of ocean traders. They sailed over twelve thousand miles with their outward bound cargos, unloaded, reloaded, and then sailed over twelve thousand miles home again.
Built like warships they had to protect themselves and each other in faraway places because there was no one else to look after them. So strong were they that they could be conscripted for naval service if required. The President was armed with 36 guns (although she could have carried more). Some of these, the lighter ones, were in the open on the main deck and up on the quarterdeck peering out through ports in the ship’s sides. Most of the cannon were below on the gundeck, tied up securely behind closed gunports.
The crew of the President lost sight of their companion ship, the Surat Merchant, near the Canary Islands off the coast of north Africa. They continued south to the warm waters of the Equator and then on round and down toward the tip of Africa, the Cape. Bad weather damaged the ship and eleven of the crew were killed or died of sickness.
Sailing north into warmer seas they arrived at the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Here they rested for a couple of weeks as they took on fresh supplies of food and water, and recovered from the their voyage, ready for the last leg, India.
From there they sailed due north toward the western side of India itself. At that time much of the country was within the borders of the Mughal Empire. Aurangzeb, the last ‘Great Mughal’, who was pushing south through India extending his territory year by year, ruled the Empire.
On the last day of December the President arrived at the port of Karwar and unloaded it’s outbound cargo. The voyage had taken eight months, and already the first of the pepper was loaded for the journey home.
On the 4th January they sailed out of Karwar for what should have been the easiest part of the whole voyage – just four hundred and fifty miles straight up the coast to the East India Company’s main depot at the port of Surat. But as they sailed north in peace they were being watched.
They sailed first to the Portuguese-controlled port of Goa. They were carrying a passenger, Robert Harbin, who was going to negotiate the release of some English prisoners held there. The President remained in the port for over a week in the hope of transporting them all to Surat, but the business took too long and the ship could wait no longer.
Agents had ridden north from Karwar with reports for the Sambaji Rajah, a warlord of those parts, that a fat rich merchant ship would be sailing up the coast toward him. The Rajah was prepared; he had six vessels full of pirates and mercenaries – some Indian, some Arab - lying in wait as the President approached. . . . . . . .