HCS Aurora was a sloop-of-war launched in 1809 at Bombay for the Bombay Marine, the naval arm of the British East India Company (EIC). Intended to protect EIC trade routes in the Indian Ocean from piracy, the French captured Aurora in September 1810, only to have the British recapture her in early December of that year. Aurora returned to the service of the Bombay Marine, assisting the British military in various campaigns in the East Indies and the Persian Gulf. The last mention of Aurora in EIC records was 1828, when she was listed on the rolls of the Bombay Marine on 1 January of that year.
Aurora went into active service shortly after she was launched. Under the command of Lieutenant Conyers, she participated the Persian Gulf campaign of 1809.[4] The Royal Navy and the EIC sent a large force to the Persian Gulf to force the Qawasim - a tribal confederation at war with Britain's ally, Oman - to cease their attacks on local shipping, particularly on the Persian and Arab coasts of the Straits of Hormuz. The operation's success was limited as British were unable to permanently suppress the strong fleets of the Qawasim of Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah.
Capture and recapture
Aurora, under the command of Lieutenant Watkins, left Bombay on 16 August 1810 on a cruise. Lloyd's List reported that the French frigates Iphigenia and Astree had captured Aurora, of 10 guns and 100 men, in October.[5] French records reveal that Iphigénie, under Acting Captain Bouvet, and Astrée captured Aurora, of 16-guns, on 20 September 1810. Both reports agree that her captors took her to Île de France. The French Navy then took Aurora into service as the corvette Aurore.[6]
The British recaptured Aurora, and several other EIC vessels, as a consequence of their successful invasion of Isle de France in November–December 1810.[7]Aurora then returned to Bombay and the EIC's service.
When the French captured British vessels they tried to get sailors, marines, and in the case of EIC ships, lascars, to join the French Navy. Apparently they generally had some success, particularly with Irishmen and lascars. However, in the case of Aurora, her marine detachment of 16 or 17 sepoys, recruited from among the Concanny Purwarries and serving in the Marine Battalion of the Bombay Marine, were steadfast in resisting first blandishments and then harsh treatment.[lower-alpha 1] When Aurora returned to Bombay, the Government promoted each man one grade, gave all the men a medal inscribed on one side in English and the other in Konkani, and had the order commending the marines read to every Native regiment in the Bombay army.[9]
Invasion of Java and punitive expeditions
In 1811, the Royal Navy and the EIC combined to launch an invasion of Java. The EIC contributed several warships, including Aurora, under the command of Commander Watkins, and several East Indiamen and other transports.[10]
In December Aurora was in Calcutta when the news arrived that a large force of Burmese troops had invaded the area of Chittagong. Captain Macdonald of Aurora assembled a force consisting of Aurora and the EIC's cruisers Phoenix, Thetis, and Vestal, as well as a 900 troops. The troops disembarked at Chittagong on 6 December, at which point the Burmese retreated.[11]
In 1812, Palimbang was under British control, with Sir Stamford Raffles as the governor of British Java. The ex-sultan of Palimbang established a stockade a few miles up from the city. From there he intercepted supplies and threatened the new sultan. Major Mears of the Bombay Army and Captain MacDonald of Aurora sent 200 men in boats to capture the stockade. They were able to do so, though not without the loss of Major Mears.[12]
That same year, HMSPhoenix, HMSProcris, and HMSBarracouta, and a detachment of 100 men from the 48th Highlanders set out on a punitive expedition against the Sultanate of Sambas, along the Sambas River in western Borneo. Barracouta was unable to force the river defenses and the expedition retreated after she suffered some casualties.[13]
From January Aurora and some gunboats then maintained a blockade until a second punitive expedition arrived in June 1813. While she maintained the blockade, Aurora recaptured some valuable Chinese junks, and unsuccessfully chased the ship Coromandel, up the river.[13]
For the second punitive expedition against Sambas, the Royal Navy contingent consisted of Leda, Hussar, Malacca, Volage, Hecate, and Procris, with Captain Sayer of Leda as the senior naval officer.[13] The EIC contributed the cruisers Malabar, Teignmouth, and Aurora, seven gunboats, the transport Troubridge, and the East IndiamanPrincess Charlotte of Wales. The army contingent consisted of the 14th Regiment of Foot, a company each from the Bengal artillery and the HEIC's European Regiment, and the 3rd Bengal Volunteer Battalion. Eventually the British vessels, except the frigates, were able to cross the bar in front of the river and move towards the town of Sambas. Capturing two forts yielded over 70 brass and iron guns of mixed calibers, but the town of itself yielded little booty. The expedition was able to recapture the Portuguese brig Coromandel, which the pirates had captured the year before. British casualties from combat were relatively low, but casualties from fever and disease were high.[13]
In early 1814, the British Army officer in charge at Palimbang replaced the current sultan with the previous sultan, who was sent into retirement in the interior. Raffles sent Captain MacDonald and Aurora, to investigate the situation. The previous sultan was deposed and his successor reinstated.[14]
In April, the EIC put together a small force consisting of Malabar, under Captain Robert Deane, the overall naval commander, Teignmouth, Aurora, and some gunboats, and an Army contingent under the command of Major-General Miles Nightingale to capture the town of Makassar from its current rajah. On 7 June the force captured Makassar, with the rajah fleeing into the countryside. A new rajah was installed, and the force returned to Company waters. Aurora returned to Calcutta, carrying the Army staff and several officials.[15]
The Maratha Navy, the organised naval force of the Maratha Empire posed a longstanding problem for the EIC. In 1816 Aurora engaged in combat with a Maratha navy flotilla in the Bay of Bengal. The painting to the right shows Aurora engaging two grabs and numerous gallivats.[lower-alpha 3] The action immediately preceded the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–18), which finally brought the Maratha Empire under EIC control.
Incident in 1817
In January 1817 Aurora was under the command of Captain Jeakes. She was towing a large "baghalah", which carried treasure from Kuwait and was destined for the Imam of Muscat. As they were sailing down the Gulf, a Qawasim force of 15 "dhows and trankies" attacked them, attempting to capture the baghalah. Jeakes managed to maneuver Aurora to bring her guns to bear and sink many of the dhows. When Aurora and the baghalah arrived at Muscat, the Imam presented Captain Jeakes with a valuable sword and an Arabian horse. Aurora then continued her journey onto Bombay.[16]
Punitive expedition against Ras Al Khaima
In November 1819, the British embarked on an expedition against the Qawasim, led by Major-General William Keir Grant, voyaging to Ras Al Khaimah with a platoon of 3,000 soldiers. The British extended an offer to Said bin Sultan of Muscat in which he would be made ruler of the 'Pirate Coast' if he agreed to assist the British in their expedition. Obligingly, he sent a force of 600 men and two ships.[17][18]
Ras Al Khaimah fell to British forces on 9 December 1819
The naval force consisted of Liverpool, Eden, Curlew, and a number of gun and mortar boats. Captain Collier, of Liverpool, led the naval force. The Bombay Marine of the East India Company (EIC) contributed six armed vessels: the 16-gun Teignmouth under the command of Captain Hall, the EIC senior captain, the 16-gun Benares, the 14-gun Aurora, the 14-gun Nautilus, the 12-gun Ariel, and the 12-gun Vestal.[19] Later two frigates and 600 men belonging to the Sultan of Muscat joined the expedition.
On the army side, Major General Sir William Keir commanded some 3,000 troops in transports, including the 47th and 65th Regiments of Foot, the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of Native Infantry, the flank companies of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of Native Infantry and of the Marine Battalion, and half a company of Pioneers. In all, 1,645 European and 1,424 Indian soldiers and marines took part in the expedition.[20] The force gathered off the coast of Ras Al Khaimah on 25 and 26 November and, on 2 and 3 December, troops were landed south of the town and set up batteries of guns and mortars and, on 5 December, the town was bombarded from both land and sea. Collier placed Captain Walpole of Curlew in charge of the gun boats and an armed pinnace to protect the landing, which was, however, unopposed.[21] The bombardment of the town commenced on 6 December, from landed batteries of 12 pound guns and mortars as well as from sea. On 7 December, two 24-pound cannon from Liverpool were added to the land batteries.[22]
The rout of Ras Al Khaimah led to only five British casualties as opposed to the 400 to 1,000 casualties reportedly suffered by the Qawasim.[23]
Following the fall of Ras Al Khaimah, the Aurora, together with Curlew and Nautilus, were sent to blockade Rams to the North and this, too was found to be deserted and its inhabitants retired to the 'impregnable' hill-top fort of Dhayah.[24] Following a three-day bombardment, Dhayah Fort surrendered on 22 December.
The British expeditionary force then blew up the town of Ras Al Khaimah and established a garrison there of 800 sepoys and artillery, before visiting Jazirat Al Hamra, which was found to be deserted. They went on to destroy the fortifications and larger vessels of Umm Al Qawain, Ajman, Fasht, Sharjah, Abu Hail, and Dubai. Ten vessels that had taken shelter in Bahrain were also destroyed.[25] The Royal Navy suffered no casualties during the action.[21]
Fate
The last readily available online mention of Aurora notes that she was still listed as serving the Bombay Marine on 1 January 1828.[26]
Notes
↑ Purwarry was a term for low-caste Indians, possibly pariahs or Paraiyars.[8]
↑ The title of the picture gives the date as 1812, but the year 1816 is more probable. In 1812 Aurora was in the East Indies, and other versions of related pictures give the year as 1816, though attributing the action to an engagement against Joasmi pirates. However, the vessels are grabs and gallivats, not dhows, suggesting that a combination of 1816 and Mahratta navy is more plausible.
↑ A grab (from the Marathi gurab), was a two or three-masted ship generally found on the Malabar Coast. A gallivat was a small vessel resembling a Mediterranean felucca, and like a felucca carried a triangular sail.
HMS Liverpool was a Royal Navy Endymion-class frigate, reclassified as a fourth rate. She was built by Wigram, Wells and Green and launched at Woolwich on 21 February 1814. She was built of pitch-pine, which made for speedy construction at the expense of durability.
Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi (1781–1866) was the Sheikh of the Qawasim and ruled the towns of Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Jazirah Al Hamra and Rams; all within the then Trucial States and now part of the United Arab Emirates. Briefly a dependent of the first Saudi Kingdom, his rule over Ras Al Khaimah ran from 1803–1809, when he was deposed by order of the Saudi Amir and restored in 1820, going on to rule until his death in 1866 at the age of 85. He was Ruler of Sharjah from 1814–1866, with a brief disruption to that rule in 1840 by his elder son Saqr. He was a signatory to various treaties with the British, starting with the General Maritime Treaty of 1820 and culminating in the Perpetual Maritime Truce of 1853.
Dhayah Fort is an 18th-century fortification in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is the highest hilltop fort in the UAE and was the site of a battle during the Persian Gulf campaign of 1819, when British troops captured the fort after a brief siege.
The Persian Gulf campaign of 1809 was an operation by the British East India Company backed by the Royal Navy to force the Al Qasimi to cease their raids on British ships in the Persian Gulf, particularly on the Persian and Arab coasts of the Strait of Hormuz. The operation's success was limited as the Royal Navy forces, already heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars, were unable to permanently suppress the strong fleets of the Al Qasimi of Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah. The expedition did achieve its short-term goals by destroying three Al Qasimi bases and over 80 vessels, including the largest Al Qasimi ship in the region, the converted merchant ship Minerva. Although operations continued into 1810, the British were unable to destroy every Al Qasimi vessel. By 1811, attacks had resumed, although at a lower intensity than previously.
The Al Qasimi is an Arab dynasty in the Persian Gulf that rules Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah, today forming two of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates. They are one of the longest reigning royal families in the Arabian peninsula.
The General Maritime Treaty of 1820 was initially signed between the rulers of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Great Britain in January 1820, with the nearby island state of Bahrain acceding to the treaty in the following February. Its full title was the "General Treaty for the Cessation of Plunder and Piracy by Land and Sea, Dated February 5, 1820".
HMS Curlew (1812) was a Royal Navy Cruizer class brig-sloop built by (William) Good & Co., at Bridport and launched in 1812. She served with the Navy for only 10 years. During the War of 1812 she sailed from Halifax and captured several American privateers. Her greatest moment was her role in the 1819 British occupation of Ras Al Khaimah, leading to the signature of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820, which established the Trucial States, today the United Arab Emirates. Curlew was sold in 1822 in Bombay. She then had a 13 or so year career as an opium runner for James Matheson, one of the founders of the firm Jardine Matheson.
Piracy in the Persian Gulf describes the naval warfare that was prevalent until the 19th century and occurred between seafaring Arabs in Eastern Arabia and the British Empire in the Persian Gulf. It was perceived as one of the primary threats to global maritime trade routes, particularly those with significance to British India and Iraq. Many of the most notable historical instances of these raids were conducted by the Al Qasimi tribe. This led to the British mounting the Persian Gulf campaign of 1809, a major maritime action launched by the Royal Navy to bombard Ras Al Khaimah, Lingeh and other Al Qasimi ports. The current ruler of Sharjah, Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi argues in his book The Myth of Piracy in the Gulf that the allegations of piracy were exaggerated by the East India Company to cut off untaxed trade routes between the Middle East and India.
Diana was a merchant ship built at Cochin, British India, in 1817. She made one voyage to Britain before the British government hired her to transport troops for a punitive expedition against the pirates of Ras al Khaima. It was in connection with that operation that she wrecked off the coast of Muscat in 1820.
Hannah was launched at Bombay Dockyard in 1811. Shortly after she was launched, she sailed to England on a voyage for the British East India Company (EIC), where her owners sold her to British owners. She engaged in a single-ship action in 1814 in which she repelled an American privateer. She participated as a transport in a punitive expedition in 1819-1820 to Ras al-Khaimah in the Persian Gulf. She was last listed in 1833.
In 1819 the British government of India decided to mount an expedition to Ras Al Khaimah to suppress piracy in the Persian Gulf.
Pascoa was launched at Calcutta in 1816. She was a "country ship", trading around India and between India and China. She was a transport in 1819-20 during the British punitive campaign against the Al Qasimi pirates. She was lost in 1836.
Orient was launched in 1814 at Calcutta. She sailed to England and from then on was based there. She traded with India into the 1830s. She participated in a naval punitive expedition in 1819, and performed four voyages for the British East India Company. From the 1840s she continued to sail widely until she was condemned in 1865 and sold for breaking up.
Cornwall was launched in 1794 as a West Indiaman. In a little more than three years later she had left on the first of three whaling voyages to the Southern Whale Fishery. On her first whaling voyage she captured a Spanish ship and fought off a French privateer. After her third whaling voyage Cornwall returned to the West Indies trade. Around 1817 new owners sent her to India where a Parsi merchant purchased her. She traded in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and also participated as a transport in a naval expedition to the Persian Gulf. She was last listed in 1824.
The Persian Gulf campaign of 1819 was a British punitive expedition, principally against the Arab maritime force of the Al Qasimi in the Persian Gulf, which embarked from Bombay, India in November 1819 to attack Ras Al Khaimah. The campaign was militarily successful for the British and led to the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820 between the British and the Sheikhs of what was then known as the "Pirate Coast", would become known as the "Trucial Coast" after this treaty. Today, the territory comprises much of the United Arab Emirates.
Hassan bin Rahma Al Qasimi was the Sheikh (ruler) of Ras Al Khaimah from 1814–1820. He was accused by the British of presiding over a number of acts of maritime piracy, an assertion he denied. Despite signing a treaty of peace with the British in October 1814, a punitive expeditionary force was mounted against Ras Al Khaimah in December 1819 and Hassan bin Rahma was removed as Sheikh of Ras Al Khaimah, which he ceded to the British in a preliminary agreement to the General Maritime Treaty of 1820.
HCS Vestal was built in 1809 at the Bombay Dockyard for the Bombay Marine, the naval arm of the British East India Company (EIC). She spent much of her career suppressing commerce raiding in the Persian Gulf. Lastly, she figured in a notable action during the First Anglo-Burmese War. She was subsequently condemned as unserviceable and sold for breaking up.
Bithnah Fort is a traditional double story rock, coral and mudbrick fortification located in the Wadi Ham, near the village of Bithnah in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. The fort has played a significant role in the history of the Emirates, particularly in the emergence of Fujairah as an independent emirate in the early 20th century. With a controlling position overlooking the Wadi Ham, the fort replaced an Iron Age fortification.
The H[onourable] C[ompany's] S[hip] Sylph was a schooner launched in 1806 at the Bombay Dockyard for the Bombay Marine, the naval arm of the British East India Company (EIC). The EIC sold her circa 1826 and she became a merchant brig. There is no mention of her in accessible online sources after 1828.
The Perpetual Maritime Truce of 1853 was a treaty signed between the British and the Rulers of the Sheikhdoms of the Lower Gulf, later to become known as the Trucial States and today known as the United Arab Emirates. The treaty followed the effective subjugation of the Qawasim maritime federation and other coastal settlements of the Lower Gulf by British forces following the Persian Gulf campaign of 1819, a punitive expedition mounted from Bombay which sailed against Ras Al Khaimah, and which resulted in the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820.
Hackman, Rowan (2001). Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN0-905617-96-7.
Moorehead, John (1977). In Defiance of The Elements: A Personal View of Qatar. Quartet Books. p.23. ISBN9780704321496.
Low, Charles Rathbone (1877). History of the Indian Navy: (1613–1863). R. Bentley and son.
Phipps, John (1840). A Collection of Papers Relative to Ship Building in India ...: Also a Register Comprehending All the Ships ... Built in India to the Present Time ... Scott.
Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84832-204-2.
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British East India Company 
