#indiaman

[marryat92]

The Indian fleet had just entered the Straits of Malacca, and were sailing in open order, with a fresh breeze and smooth water. The hammocks had been stowed, the decks washed, and the awnings spread. Shoals of albicore were darting across the bows of the different ships; and the seamen perched upon the cat-heads and spritsail-yard, had succeeded in piercing with their harpoons many, which were immediately cut up, and in the frying-pans for breakfast. But very soon they had “other fish to fry:” for one of the Indiamen, the Royal George, made the signal that there were four strange sail in the South West.

— Frederick Marryat, Newton Forster

The Indiaman 'Royal George' in three positions in the Downs, 1779 (detail), by Francis Holman

[clove-pinks]

A suspicious amount of grabbing and groping for support in this detail from "An interesting scene, on board an East-India-man, showing the effects of a heavy lurch" (George Cruikshank etching after Frederick Marryat's drawing, 1818)

[citoyenne]

William Stothard, The Wreck of the ‘Halsewell’, Indiman (1796)

[sulltxn]

I would let this man ruin my life 🥴

[marryat92]

It was on New Year's day, 1800, that we boarded a large homeward bound Indiaman, which had just struck soundings. She was a thousand ton ship, with a rich cargo of tea on board, and full of passengers, besides more than one hundred invalids from the regiments out there, who had been sent home under the charge of two officers.

— Frederick Marryat, Poor Jack

On Board an Indiaman, attributed to Captain Robert Williams, active c. 1800-1810

[marryat92]

It was on New Year’s Day, 1800, that we boarded a large homeward-bound Indiaman, which had just struck soundings. She was a thousand ton ship, with a rich cargo of tea on board, and full of passengers, besides more than one hundred invalids from the regiments out there, who had been sent home under the charge of two officers.

— Frederick Marryat, Poor Jack

The 'Earl of Abergavenny' East Indiaman, off Southsea (detail) by Thomas Luny, 1801

[marryat92]

The Indiamen had formed the line of battle in close order, the private signal between English men-of-war and East India ships flying at their mast-heads.

"Extremely strange, that she does not answer the private signal," said the colonel to the second-mate.

"Not at all, if she don't know how."

"You are convinced, then, that she is a French frigate?"

"No, not positive; but I'll bet you ten to one she is:—bet off, if either of us are killed, of course!"

"Thanky; I never bet," answered the colonel, turning away.

— Frederick Marryat, Newton Forster

A Fleet of East Indiamen at Sea (detail), by Nicholas Pocock, 1803

[marryat92]

My father was brought up to the sea, Jack, and was a smart young man till he was about thirty; when a fall from the main-yard disabled him from hard duty, and going aloft: but still he had been brought up to sea, and was fit for nothing on shore. So, as he was a clean likely fellow, he obtained the situation of purser's steward in an Indiaman.

— Frederick Marryat, Poor Jack

A Portrait of an East Indiaman off Dover, Kent by Thomas Whitcombe, 1808