Bengal Pilot Service

Pilot's Pass c.1890s

The Bengal Pilot Service was responsible for guiding shipping between along the Hooghly River between Calcutta and the Bay of Bengal.

Amongst other contributions, this article contains extracts from FIBIS member Sage's unpublished manuscript of records for Genealogists interested in India.

Introduction

According to Massey,¹

"THE UNITED SERVICE CLUB

Was formerly styled the Bengal Military Club, the members of which were limited to the I.C.S. and military services. As time, however, moved on and things changed they found that this particular form of exclusiveness was rather an expensive luxury, and very wisely threw open wide the heavenly portals and admitted within their celestial and sacred precincts members of other government services, save and except those of the Bengal pilots. Why the club ever made this invidious distinction, of course I cannot say, but at a later period, recognising possibly the injustice of their action, they rescinded their prohibition, and now the pilots sit in the seats of the mighty amongst the members of the other services."

History of the Bengal Pilot Service

Brice and Labey⁴ give a date of 1651 for the foundation of the service, but according to James Prinsep's Chronological Tables,³ the service dates back to 1669:

[1669 ...] This year also were received orders from home, to institute a pilot establishment at Hoogly, to build a pinnace to be manned with intelligent seamen from the Indiamen, to take charge of the shipping up and down. Thus originated the Bengal Pilot Service.

The Bengal Pilot Service was abolished on the 15th May, 1948.⁴

Composition of the Pilot Service

This table shows the number of pilots of each rank in the service in 1853.

Senior Branch Pilot	1
Branch Pilot	11
Senior Master	23
Master	7
Mate	30
Senior 2d Mate	12
Junior 2d Mate	12
Volunteer	46
Total Complement	142

(Source: IOR/L/MAR/8/9)

Records

National Maritime Museum (Greenwich)

THS 12 The History of the Bengal Pilot Service by Brice & Labey

This is a unique unpublished history of the Bengal Pilot Service in the Historical Manuscripts Collection of the National Maritime Museum. It covers a wide range of aspects to do with the service and its employee's e.g. Appendix G ‘Obituaries’ comprises information from various sources for men of the Pilot service and their families.

The Percy-Smith Collection (MS 88/006)

The Percy-Smith Collection is not held in the main Caird Library of the Museum - access to the items must be requested a week or so in advance of a visit.

• Item (18) - Bengal Marine ‘Particulars of certificates granted by the Government of Calcutta up to December 1902 to Masters, Mates and Engineers in Mercantile Marine’. These records are of particular interest to persons looking for River Pilots who were born in India who were in service in the 1890’s and at the turn of the twentieth century. The entries include the person’s name, date and place of birth , class of certificate, certificate number and its date of granting.

These records divide into:

Colonial Certificates of competency; Local (Foreign Trade) Certificates of competency; Local (Home Trade) Certificates of competency; Local Certificates of Service; Local (Inland) Certificates of Service; Local (Inland) Certificates of Competency

• Item (29) - Index Cards : Bengal Medical (1740-1914, surnames A-H only); Bengal Orphans (1780-1840); Bengal Marine and Bengal Pilots (1700-1914). Note that there are index cards about other topics in the Percy Smith collection at the Society of Genealogists

Asia, Pacific & Africa Collection, British Library (India Office)

There are many records of the India Office at the British Library that pertain to the Bengal Marine and Bengal Pilot Service.

Records marked (#) should appear on LDS microfilms: 2028922 - 25; 2029155.

Shelf Mark	Dates	Description
L/AG/20 & 21	1814 - Post 1947	Includes records of leave and service pensions
L/AG/21/9/151-157	1920-1968	Bengal Pilot Fund pensions paid in UK
L/E/6-7	1880-1924	Pilot service recruitment information for this period contained within these papers.
L/MAR/8/1-20	1793-1880	Various lists of employees and volunteers in the Bengal Marine and Pilot Service
L/MAR/8/9	1853-	Quarterly Returns of Europeans in their Order of Station in the Pilot Establishment
L/MAR/C/689	1794-1830	Appointments to Bengal Pilot Service
L/MAR/C/704 #	1858-61	Indian Navy, Bengal pilots
L/MAR/C/755-756 #	1848-60	Europeans in the service of the Bengal marine
L/MAR/C/760-761 #	1824-64	Bengal marine civil and marine casualties
L/MAR/C/762-763		Bengal Marine records of service
L/MAR/C/855 #	1821	Seamen in the Bengal marine who have claims on the company for wages, see L/E/6-7 for later recruitment’s
V/12	1896-1926	Covenanted pilots are included in the Bengal Histories of Service.

Description	Date	IOR Shelf Mark	LDS Film Ref.
Pilot service entries, A-M	1796-1858		FHL BRITISH Film 2028925 Items 7-8
Pilot service entries, N-Z	1796-1858		FHL BRITISH Film 2028926 Item 1
Appointment, baptismal and other certificates of volunteers	1818-1844	L/MAR/8/1	FHL BRITISH Film 2028926 Item 2
Certificates of volunteers	1844-1855		VAULT BRITISH Film 2028996
Certificates of volunteers	1855-1861		VAULT BRITISH Film 2028997
Certificates and lists of European employees	1793-1852		FHL BRITISH Film 2028998
European employees	1852-1869		FHL BRITISH Film 2028999
European employees	1869-1880		FHL BRITISH Film 2029000 Item 1

Society of Genealogists

Information available at the Society of Genealogists:

Bullock’s Directory of Non Official Europeans in India (1780-1820) – lists of Europeans and Anglo-Indians not in the King’s Service. The information extracted from the East India Register and similar publications for Bengal.. Includes a number of Free Mariners/ Country Traders/ Free Merchants, Indigo Planters and River Pilots. However persons in many other professions are included, also some women and children.

Index of Pilots

• Appendices From M.H. Beattie on FIBIS Search (see details below)
• Index to L/MAR/8/1 (in preparation)

Published works

Beattie On The Hooghly (1935): This is a personal account of the Hooghly Pilot Service, the author served 1878-1913. Of particular interest to family Historians are the appendices:

Appendix A comprises a list of serving Branch Pilots (1847-1888)

Appendix B comprises a list of men joining the Service as Licensed Pilot or Covenanted Pilots (1858-1876) and men who joined the service as recruits from the training ships Worcester and Conway (1877-1893)

Appendix C comprises a list of men joining the Service (1893-1916)

References

1. Recollections of Calcutta for over Half a Century by Montague Massey
2. Beattie, Malcolm H. (1935). On The Hooghly. Philip Allan & Co. Ltd.
3. Prinsep, James (1836). Useful Tables, Forming an Appendix to The Journal Of The Asiatic Society. Part the Second. Chronological and Genealogical Tables, page 160.
4. Labey, Capt G.T. and Brice, Capt R.K.H. (1970), The Bengal Pilot Service. National Maritime Museum, Ref. THS/12/1-9

External Links

• British Maritime History - Realistic genealogical guides to surviving records and more, Len Barnett’s site, has a section on Bengal Marine.
• "An Unqualified Pilot" by Rudyard Kipling. An interesting and informative short story depicting the work of a pilot on the Hooghly.
• Read about the Bengal Pilot Service in September 1800, Pilot Mr Parry, the perils of shifting sand in the river, with numerous sharks and alligators Part 10, page 41 from Cursory Remarks, on board the ship Friendship by Mary Anne Reid, continues part 11 Google Books

Individuals

• Arthur David Linklater, Master Mariner - Duncan Linklater's excellent site contains information on shipping and navigation in the early twentieth century, including details of Linklater's employment by the Calcutta Port Commission. With scans and transcripts of many original documents, exploring the site is recommended, but pages of particular general interest include:

• Scan of pilot's certificate for pilotage of the Hooghly
• Some notes about the Hooghly
• Hooghly Pilotage ca. 1910
• Dana's Dictionary of Sea Terms 1841/51