Merchant Vessels in the Service of the East India Company, 1601-1832

The following list of merchant vessels in the service of the East India Company is derived from Jean Sutton, Lords of the East; The East India Company and Its Ships (London: Conway Maritime Press, 1981), pp. 162-168. Sutton's work is based, in turn, on the following:

For the period 1601-1672: Bal Krishna, Commercial Relations between India and England 1601-1757, Studies in Economics and Political Science, 67 (London: G. Routledge & Sons, 1924).
For the period 1673-1790: Ship Book, East India Company Records, Vol. 2, British Library, Add. MSS 38872.
For the period 1791-1832: Horatio Charles Hardy, Register of Ships Employed in the Service of the East India Company (1820).

These are are secondary works, and contain numerous errors. The following list should therefore not be considered authoritative, but merely as a first step towards consulting the original East India Office records among the collections of the British Library Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC). For more information on these collections see http://portico.bl.uk/collections/oriental/records/overview.html.

Andrea Cordani maintains a website on East India Company Vessels, at http://www.ships.clara.net/. At present (August 2000), her list covers vessels with names beginning with the letters "A" through "C".

Tony Fuller (tfuller.tfresearch@virgin.net) is also preparing for publication on the internet a list of merchant vessels in the service of the East India Company based on a study of original East India Office and other records.

Vessels A-E

Vessels F-N

Vessels P-Z

Please send any corrections or additions (which will be properly reference and acknowledged) to Michael Palmer.

20.04.02ef

19.09.02ef

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