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124 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.

came nearer and battered her on all sides until she struck ; and
if the defence was obstinate, they sent a ninnber of galivats
with two or three hundred men in each, who boarded, sword in
hand, from all quarters at the same instant. It was now fifty
years that this piratical state had rendered itself formidable to
the trading ships of all the European nations in India, and the
English East India Company had kept up a marine force at the
annual expense of de50,0()0 to protect their own ships, as well as
those belonging to the merchants established in their colonies
;
for as no vessel could, with prudence, venture to singly pass by
Angria's dominions, the trade was convoyed at particular times
up and down the sea coasts by the Company's armed vessels.
Angria's ships sailed much better than the Bombay fleet, and
never fought them longer than they thought proper ; in the
meantime, Angria's seldom failed to take such ships as ventured
to sail without company along the coast." Besides the ' Derby,'
(Indiaman) and Ann' (grab), they took a forty-gun ship belong-
'
ing to the French Company, and, in February, 1754, captured,
after a severe action, three Dutch ships of fifty, thirty-six, and
eighteen guns, w-hich were sailing together, burning the two
largest, and taking the third.*
We have now arrived at a period in the history of the Bombay
Marine, when the Service entered upon an extended career of
usefulness, and, by the discipline, valour, and skill evinced by
its officers and men, vindicated its claim to be regarded as the
Navy of India, an honourable title conceded to it many years
later by the Sailor King, who felt a sympathy for the small
Service whose officers had fairly earned the distinctive appellation
by more than two centuries of arduous service.
* Orme's " History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Hin-
dostan for the year 1745," vol. i., p. 409, et seq. ^^