The shipping losses of the British East India Company, 1750–1813

Abstract

This article establishes and examines the shipping losses of the British East India Company between the middle of the eighteenth century and 1813 when it lost its trade monopoly with India. This was the most important period in the history of the East India Company because it greatly expanded its trade with India and China and established what became a very large territorial empire on the subcontinent. It was also a time when Britain was often at war with France. This is the first publication to present full information on all of the East India Company’s shipping losses. They are set out in the Appendix, which presents details of the names of every ship lost, the date of loss, the cause, and whether the ship was sailing to or from Asia. This information, discussed in the article, shows that 105 ships were lost on 2,171 voyages, a rate of loss that stood at just under 5%. The causes were primarily wrecking, foundering and enemy action, which contributed to far higher shipping losses on voyages outward to Asia than homeward. The East India Company did little itself to rectify this situation because the ships they used were hired from private owners, but some specialists within the Company did take it upon themselves to improve some navigational aids and shipbuilding techniques, although with little overall effect upon the rate of shipping losses. This meant that the East India Company was plagued by shipping losses throughout the period, and this had a very negative effect upon its commercial affairs and profitability.