Abstract
The voyage from Britain to Asia in the age of sail was a test of character. It took some 4–5 months to reach India; meanwhile, passengers had to endure not only the hazards of a sea voyage but also noise, dirt, cramped conditions, lack of privacy, enforced company, and long periods of utter tedium.
John McAleer focuses on passengers’ experiences in the Atlantic Ocean – a stage on the route taken by all East Indiamen and particularly difficult, thanks to adverse trade winds and intertropical doldrums. This Atlantic leg has been neglected, although it was pivotal for passengers. On this leg, they first came to terms with conditions at sea, reflected on the familiar world they had left, and prepared for a new epoch in their life.
In the introduction, McAleer expertly situates his study in relation to existing scholarship. He also positions it within the context of British engagement with the wider world. Later chapters explore shipboard spaces and daily life on board, how travellers passed the time, how they made observations that might contribute to scientific knowledge, and their experience of various stopping-off points along the way, where they encountered different cultures and assessed them against their own. A short conclusion allows him to sum up the importance of this leg of their journey, about half of the total distance to India. Only after rounding the Cape of Good Hope did most passengers allow themselves to think about their arrival.
Mealtimes served to punctuate the monotonous voyage. Despite complaints about musty ship's biscuit and maggots feasting in the figs served, many passengers ate surprisingly well. East Indiamen sailed with a menagerie of animals in pens and cages; passengers stocked up on treats and alcohol. Only in 1795 did the Company limit their baggage to between three and a half tons and one and a half tons, depending on rank. It would have been interesting to learn more about cooking arrangements on board since it was not uncommon for passengers to complain that they had put on weight and had to let out their clothes.
Atlantic Voyages reveals much about human psychology in cramped conditions; the least slight, real or imagined, could mushroom into conflict. There was no escaping ‘a crowd of spies’ (p. 3), and stopovers might be anticipated as an opportunity to settle a dispute by duelling as well as to eat fresh food. The book taps into current interest in the ship as a social and cultural space. For instance, sailors jealously guarded the areas they regarded as their territory: the forecastle and rigging. Passengers who infiltrated these spaces, for exercise or through error, had to pay a fine – often a bottle of rum – after which they could roam as they wished.
Pastimes – games, theatricals, dances and concerts – entertained passengers and crew alike. One passenger sprained his shoulder when he joined midshipmen in a leap-frog game. ‘You cannot imagine what a man's mind comes to after several weeks at sea’, his wife commented (p. 119). McAleer also describes ceremonies and rituals, including the one associated with crossing the Equator, when novice men had their faces plastered with tar and dirt, then scraped with a razor of rusty metal before being ducked overboard, or in barrels or sails holding water. The ritual could be avoided by paying a fine.
Atlantic Voyages also shows how passengers were affected by contemporary modes of natural description, including the physico-theological poetry of James Thomson, and so primed to admire the sublime scenes they encountered on the ocean. It is disappointing that many considered their linguistic powers unequal to reporting what they saw or heard, falling back, for example, on the ‘words are unequal to describe’ trope when the ship's timbers groaned in a gale.
McAleer reminds us that ships operated as ‘floating laboratories’ and ‘peripatetic collecting sites’ (p. 19). From 1779, Alexander Dalyrymple, the Company's hydrographer, issued notes on the use of the chronometer, hoping to harness the observations of routine voyages to improve sea charts. Yet the role of trading companies in advancing scientific knowledge through observations made at sea, as opposed to Admiralty-sponsored voyages of exploration, is comparatively neglected. True, the pursuit of knowledge was always linked to empire and commerce, and passengers made informal scientific observations partly to pass the time, but at least their efforts encouraged engagement with the natural world. McAleer records an albatross being shot and stuffed, the wings of flying fish dried and flattened in the leaves of a book, sargassum (seaweed) being heaved on board and examined, the density of seawater measured, and the stars in the southern sky carefully noted – although the luminosity of the Southern Cross was sometimes a disappointment.
Inevitably, the book suffers from a degree of repetition. In addition to overlaps between chapters where boundaries between themes are fuzzy, travel accounts record the same circumstances: amazing sunsets, unusual phosphorescent seas, wonderful cloud formations, personal battles against boredom, and the destruction of clothes stored in the hold from mildew and damp. Yet McAleer has taken pains with signposting: there are good connections between chapters, summaries of main points at the end of sections, careful cross-references, and nudges to the reader to remember earlier detail. In sum, this is a fine contribution to the study of the East India Company, well researched and accessibly written.
