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         ^SG    —      HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
           At this time a change was made in the nniform of the Bom-
         bay Marine.  Hitherto  the  senior  and jnnior captains and
         commanders had worn buff lapells and gold lace on their full-
         dress coats, and lieutenants buff lapells only  ; but, as a recog-
         nition for the good service rendered during the past few years
         in the Eastern Islands, at Mocha, and  in the Persian  Gulf,
         the following Orders were issued by the Bombay Government
         relative  to  the wearing of uniform  by  the  officers  of the
         Service  :
            "Minute of Council, 24th of May, 1820.  The Hon. the
         Governor in Council, considering  it proper that the officers of
         the Hon. Company's Marine on this establishment should be
         placed, in respect  to uniform, on a level with those of  all
         other military services under this Government, has been pleased
         to direct that the commodore, the senior and junior captains,
         the commanders, and the  first and second  lieutenants, shall
         wear  epaulettes, according  to their respective ranks, distin-
         guished as follows  :
           " Commodore.—Two gold epaulettes, with a  silver lion and
         two stars on each.
           " Senior Captains.—Two gold epaulettes, with a silver  lion
         and one star on each.
           " Junior Captains.—Two gold epaulettes, with a silver lion
         only on each.
           '•
             Commanders.—Two gold epaulettes, plain.
           "First-Lieutenants.—One gold epaulette, plain, on the rigbt
         shoulder.
           "Second-Lieutenants.— One gold epaulette, plain, on the left
         shoulder.
           " It is further directed, that the undress of all officers (with
         the exception of the commodore) be without lace; and that the
         participated in the operations against the Joasmi pirates of 1819-20, and died on
                           : —
         the 19th of October, 1875  " I hope you will not be annoyed at my stating that
          vou have been misinformed as to the deaths on board of H.M.'s ship  ' Liverpool,'
         in the Persian Gulf in 1821, as related in your book, the Land of the Sun.'
                                                   '
         The third-Heutenant, Girardot, having died late in the day, after having had the
         forenoon watch, orders were left for the officer of the morning watch to bury
         him as soon as he could see to read. A  little before eight a.m. this officer, G.
         Bell, called me over (I was mate of the watch), and asked me why the cook had
         not brought the dinner aft.  I answered that it was not jet eight o'clock ; he
         replied that it was so hot he thought it was near noon.  In about ten minutes time
         he called me over again and repeated the question.  Seeing that he was not well,
         I prevailed on him to go below, saying that I would report eight o'clock to the
         captain, and sent for the midshipman to call the surgeon.  He died in about an
         liour, as did the first-lieutenant, who had been unwell since the ship left China in
         the early part of the year. A day or two afterwards we lost the surgeon and
         assistant-surgeon, but only five men, and one of these fell, or rather was supposed
         to have fallen asleep, and fallen overboard from the main deck bow-part, where
         he was last seen seeking to cool hunself.  Excepting the officer of the watch, two
         look-out men, the quartermaster and man at the wheel, the crew were kept below,
         snd  all hands turned up to perform any operation.  On arriving at Busliire we
         obtained a surgeon from a Company's cruiser."
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