Transport vessels for the British Government's importation of rice from Bengal (1800–1802)

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Weather-induced crop failures in Britain in 1799 and 1800 forced the British Government to import rice from Bengal to counter popular unrest. The wheat harvests of 1799 and 1800 were about one-half and three-quarters of the average, respectively. The price of bread rose sharply, leading to bread riots; some of the rioters invoked the French Revolution. [1]

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Because the British East India Company (EIC) had a legal monopoly on all trade between Britain and India, the Government had to have the EIC engage the transport vessels. The EIC chartered 28 vessels, comprising 14,785 tons (bm), to sail from England between December 1800 and February 1801 to bring back the rice. [2] The decision to import rice from Bengal repeated a similar program in 1795–1796. That time the program involved at least 14 vessels, two of which the French captured and two of which were lost at sea.

In the 1800–1802 program most of the vessels returned between late 1801 and early 1802. One vessel was lost with all her cargo, and another was damaged and lost much of her cargo.

Emperor Paul I of Russia, in the context of the Second League of Armed Neutrality and the British Mediterranean campaign of 1798, on 18 November 1800 placed an embargo on all British shipping to Russia. The Russians seized some 200 British vessels in Russian ports, imprisoned some 4000–5000 crew members, and sequestrated some £1,500,000 in British property. The embargo lasted until 28 May 1801, and disrupted the grain trade with the Baltic. This in turn led to the British Government's decision in November 1800 to send a naval force to the Baltic once ice and weather conditions permitted. [1]

In addition to the 28 vessels chartered for the purpose of bringing rice from Bengal, other vessels also brought back rice. The EIC had chartered Indian Chief as an extra ship for a voyage to Bengal. She arrived back at Gravesend on 30 September 1801 with 4150 bags of rice. [3] She reported that when she had left Bengal in mid-May, the rice ships were preparing to sail in the next fortnight and that rice was readily available on the Bengal coast.

The "United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies" offered 28,966 bags of rice for sale on 25 March 1802. The rice had come in on Travers, Melville Castle, Skelton Castle , and Mornington. [4] On 30 March 1802 the Court of Directors of the United Company of Merchants trading with the East Indies (the EIC), announced that on 22 April they would offer for sale 37,000 bags of rice brought by Hind, Hope, Minerva, Ceres, and Bellona. [5] Hope had been launched at Calcutta early in 1801 and apparently was engaged there to carry rice to Britain on what would have been her maiden voyage.

VesselMasterBurthen (bm) [lower-alpha 1] Agent or owner
Active John Greitin Smyth500
Automasia Anthony Curtis960Prinsep & Saunders
Betsy, or BetseyCharles Hooper208
Bellona Edward Lamb472
Berrington John Carse816Prinsep & Saunders
Bridgewater George Lukin799Prinsep & Saunders
Ceres Thomas Todd455Thomas Hall
Earl St Vincent Richard Williams341Prinsep & Saunders
Eliza Francis Holman268Prinsep & Saunders
Experiment John Nelson Whyte560Robert Wigram
Ganges Forster Brown458Prinsep & Saunders
Grant William Peacoke497Prinsep & Saunders
Hind, or HindeWilliam Caitline400
Loyalist Francis Walton526Prinsep & Saunders
Malabar [lower-alpha 2] Thomas Kent884Prinsep & Saunders
Minerva George Richardson780John Atkins
Nutwell John Cristal [lower-alpha 3] 378Prinsep & Saunders
Perseverance Nathaniel Downick341Prinsep & Saunders
Rose Christopher Kymer801John Kymer
Scarborough John Scott429Charles Kensington
Sir Edward Hamilton Andrew Robertson500Robert Anderson
Sir John Borlase Warren William James Davis369Prinsep & Saunders
Suffolk [lower-alpha 4] (No.1)John Robinson430Prinsep & Saunders
Suffolk (No.2)John Luke400Prinsep & Saunders
Thames Beevy Eilbeck690Matthew White
William Dent Giles Musson500John Atkins
William Pitt Richard Owens798Anthony Calvert
Young Nicholas Richard Silby400Prinsep & Saunders

Notes

  1. ↑ Burthen is a volumetric measure of a vessel's size and does not translate into absolute tonnage of cargo a vessel can carry. All one may infer is that a vessel with a greater burthen can carry more cargo than one with a lesser burthen.
  2. ↑ A fire destroyed Malabar in Madras Roads on 3 August 1801 as she was homeward bound. Her cargo of 12–13,000 bags of rice was lost.
  3. ↑ Cristall drowned on 15 August 1801 during the voyage.
  4. ↑ Suffolk was driven ashore at Cornwall near the end of her voyage. She was refloated but only part of her cargo of rice was saved.

Citations

  1. 1 2 Neumann & Kington (1992), p. 187.
  2. ↑ Hardy (1800), p. 217.
  3. ↑ EAST INDIA ARRIVALS. 1 October 1801. Morning Post (London, England), Issue: 10276.
  4. ↑ "No. 15458". The London Gazette . 2 March 1802. p. 232.
  5. ↑ "No. 15467". The London Gazette . 30 March 1802. p. 337.

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Santa Brigida was a frigate of the Spanish Navy, launched in 1785. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1799. She then became the East Indiaman Automatia, and made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC). She was sold for breaking up in 1803.

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