Page 48 - INDIANNAVYV1

IG HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. ;
had been obtained, and the establishment of regular trading
factories was resolved upon, it became necessary to afford them
protection from the aggressions of the Portuguese and the pirates
who infested those seas. Hence was formed the nucleus of the
service that developed, first into the Bombay Marine, and,
ultimately, into the Indian Navy ; and which, af^ter an existence
of exactly two centuries and a half, terminated its existence,
with scanty acknowledgments from its new masters in West-
minster. In this year, 16J3, when the Indian Marine was first
formed, the Company had not a single European soldier, or
Sepoy, in their pay, and the British Army had no existence,
as the earliest of the regular regiments, whether belonging to
the Guards or the Line, was not raised until 1660, the first year
of the reign of Charles II.
The Agent at the Surat factory established a small local force
of grabs and galivats,* mounting from two to five or six guns,

to Sarauel Purchas, who published " Purchas, his Pilgrimes," in 1625, which
inchided the logs of the first twenty voyages, which were, however, set forth in
an abridged and mutilated form, Several of the originals have disappeared, and
only two, Sir John Lancaster's first Toyage in 1601, and Sir Henry Middleton's
Toyage in 1606, have since been published. Speaking of these journals, Mr. Clements
—
Markham writes in his " Memoir on the Indian Surveys:" "The rest are still
preserved at the India Office, and are numbered in two series; the first, consisting
of sixty-eight volumes, extending from 1606 to 1708 ; and the second, containing
the logs of the East India Comjjany's ships, from 1708 to 1832. The Journals
of Lancaster, Middleton and Saris are missing, though a copy of the latter is
now in the Topographical Depot of the War Office. The oldest logs at the India
Office, are those of Captain Keehng in 1606, and Captain Sharpey in 1607.
Among the other journals of the first series, there is a curious treatise on map-
making in Thomas Love's log, kept on board the ' Peppercorn ' in 1610
Downton's memorial of his second voyage in 1613 ; the Jom-ual of the junk, ' Sea
Adventui'e,' on her voyage from Firando to Cochin China ; the Journal kept in
1621, during a cruise ofi' Manilla, on board a ship in the combined English and
Dutch fleets, which sailed from Firando ; and journals of other voyages to Aden,
Surat, the Persian Gulf, and the Malabar and C'oromandel Coasts. Only one of
the Arctic voyages set forth by the East India Company has been preserved, and
is about to he printed and edited by Sir Leopold McClintock. It is that of
Captain Knight, who sailed in 1606, and landing on some frozen shore, was
never heard of again." Unhappily among tlie Indian Kecords burnt in 1860,
were the Minutes and Reports of the Committee of Shipping, " containing a
rich mine of information relating to all that concerned the Marine branch of the
Company's aifaii-s, as well as the Indian Navy logs, that had been sent home."
: —
* Orme describes as follows the grabs and galivats of his day "The grabs
have rarely more than two masts, although some have three, and are about 300
tons ; but the two-masted grabs are not more than 150 tons. They are built to
draw very little water, being very broad in proportion to their length, narrowing,
however, from the middle to the bows, where they have a prow, projecting like
that of a Mediterranean galley, and covered with a strong deck, level with the
main deck of the vessel, from which, however, it is separated by a bulkhead
which terminates the forecastle ; as this construction subjects the grab to pitch
violently when sailing against a head sea, the deck of the prow is not enclosed
with sides as the rest of the vessel is, but remains bare, that the water which
dashes upon it may pass off without interception. On the main deck, under the
forecastle, are mounted two pieces of cannon, nine or twelve-pounders, which
point forward through the port-holes cut in the bulkhead and tire over the prow ;
the cannon on the broadside are from six to nine-pounders. The galivats aie
large row-boats built like the grab, but of smaller dimensions, the largest rarely