The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, October 1879Various
History
The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, October 1879
Various
Arts -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals
Besides surveys of the Eastern seas, European nations trading with India
are indebted to the Indian Navy for the opening up of the Overland
Route, and so, indirectly, for the construction of the Suez Canal.
Without steam, indeed, the Red Sea could never have become a highway of
commerce, while with its extended use that great canal could not for
ever be closed; but the _Hugh Lindsay_ of the Indian Navy, the first
steamer constructed in the East, which, after thirty years of service,
was still staunch enough for work as a tug at Kurachi, was the first
steamer to appear on its waters, making the voyage to and from Suez in
1830, under the command of Captain John Lindsay. The expense of the
voyage, however, was so great that, after seven trips, the Court bade
the Government of Bombay only repeat it in case of emergency, and it was
reserved for Lieutenant Waghorn, also of the Indian Navy, by sacrifice
of his private fortune and professional prospects and ten years'
unceasing labour, to prove that communication with India through the Red
Sea was not only a luxury of State, but a profitable commercial
enterprise. From his labours all have profited save himself and his
family, and the only public acknowledgment of his services is a bust in
the Canal Garden at Suez.
With some labour, caused by the want of an index, many notices of
interest might be quarried from Captain Low's pages. The early history
of Bombay, the antecedents of the rulers of Muscat and Zanzibar, the
settlement at Aden, the true story of Perim, the achievements of the
Sepoy Marines, who are now represented by two regular regiments of the
Bombay Army, all invite notice, but our space is exhausted. Yet we must
find room to mention the self-denial of Commodore Hayes, who, rather
than embroil the Company with China, released two junks captured in
running the blockade from Batavia with Dutch property, and so sacrificed
his large share of £600,000 lawful prize; and the gallantry of
Midshipman Denton, who, unable to board a proa, lashed her bowsprit to
the taffrail of his gunboat, and so continued his course, fighting her
all the time. And for contrast with the experience of the Bay of Bengal,
where we believe that the full pressure of a great cyclone has never
been recorded, as the anemometers have broken with a pressure of sixty
pounds, we may note that, in the cyclone of November, 1854, so famous at
Bombay, the pressure did not exceed thirty-five pounds to the square
foot: with such a storm as that which raged in Calcutta in October,
1864, the whole native town of Bombay would come down like a house of
cards. We are sorry not to have been able to notice Captain Low's
labours more favourably; particular points which we had noted for
objection we will pass over in silence.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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