For several years prior to the arrangement of the Contract with this
Company, for the accelerated transmission of the India Mails to and
from Alexandria, much public solicitude had been manifested for a more
comprehensive system of steam communication with India than that which
had been established by the Government and the East India Company. That
establishment being considered, as, indeed, at its commencement it was
professed to be, merely a preliminary and experimental one--intended to
pave the way for a more comprehensive scheme, that should embrace all
the Presidencies, and not be limited to the port of Bombay only, as the
Government and East India Line was,--and which it was expected private
enterprise would undertake, after the navigation of the Red Sea, and
other important questions connected with such an undertaking, had been
tested by the Imperial and Indian Governments.
As a proof of the importance which was attached to this extension of
steam communication with British India, the following declarations of
eminent persons connected with the Government of that empire may be
quoted:--
The late Lord William Bentinck, then Governor-General of India, stated,
in a public despatch, that so great were the advantages which it would
confer, “that it would be cheaply purchased at any price.” The present
Right Honourable President of the India Board, Sir John Cam Hobhouse,
who then filed the same post, in speaking in the House of Commons of
various ameliorations which the Government he was then connected with
had in view for India, in which improved steam communication formed
an item, said, that “it was calculated to benefit India to an extent
beyond the power of the most ardent imagination to conceive.” And the
present Lord Bishop of Calcutta, in a public address at a meeting in
that city, said, that “the extension of steam navigation with India
would be opening the floodgates of measureless blessings to mankind.”
Various attempts, however, under the sanction of eminent merchants,
and other influential parties connected with India, to form a Company
and establish the so much-desired scheme having failed, the parties
who had been instrumental in establishing the Peninsular Company,
and the accelerated conveyance for the India Mails to Alexandria,
feeling that they had placed themselves in a position to effect
this important national object, resolved to adopt it as a part of
their enterprise, which they thenceforth designated “The Peninsular
and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.” It was accordingly formed
into a joint-stock Company, and a Charter of Incorporation from the
Crown was applied for, which, after considerable opposition from
other parties, was granted--but subject to the following conditions,
namely, “That the Company should open an improved steam communication
with India throughout, from England, within two years from the date
of the Charter, or it should be null. That all steam vessels to be
constructed by the Company of 400-horse power, and upwards, should be
so strengthened and otherwise arranged as to carry and fire guns of
the largest calibre then used in Her Majesty’s steam vessels of war.
That the Government should have a power of inspection, as to their
being maintained in good and efficient sea-worthy condition, and that
the Company should not sell any of such vessels without giving the
pre-emption of purchase to the Government.”
The Company under this Charter having obtained the necessary
additional capital, and being joined also by most of the parties who
had previously been endeavouring to effect this object under the
designation of “The East India Steam Navigation Company,” proceeded,
with all practicable speed, to fulfil the conditions, and carry out the
object of their Charter of Incorporation.
On the 24th September, 1842, their first vessel destined for the
India Sea service, the “Hindostan,” of 1800 tons, and 520-horse
power, constructed at Liverpool, at a cost of £88,000, was despatched
from Southampton for Calcutta, to open the “Comprehensive” line of
communication, by plying between Calcutta, Madras, Ceylon, and Suez.
The commencement of this communication, by so large and powerful a
vessel, was looked upon as a public event, and the ship was visited by
members of the then Government, Directors of the Honourable East India
Company, and many other eminent individuals.
It may here be necessary to advert to a circumstance which has been
made the subject of much misrepresentation, and was even attempted,
although without success, to be misrepresented to the Parliamentary
Committee. (See evidence of Mr. Andrew Henderson in the Report,
questions 2200 to 2208, and 2333, and 2334; also, correspondence
between the East India Company and the Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Company, in the Appendix, page 224 to 227.)
The circumstance alluded to was this:--The Directors of the East India
Company, seeing that the extension of steam communication with India
was at last in the hands of parties likely to place it on a practical
basis, and desirous to encourage it on public grounds, voluntarily
proposed to the Peninsular and Oriental Company to give them a premium
of £20,000 per annum, and to continue the same for five years, on
certain conditions, which, if the Company should at any time neglect or
decline to fulfil, it was at the option of the East India Company to
withdraw the premium or grant.