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[[CategoryImage:OccupationsPilotsPass.jpg|thumb|300px|Pilot's Pass c.1890s]] The '''Bengal Pilot Service''' was responsible for guiding shipping along the Hooghly River between [[Calcutta]] and the Bay of Bengal and was part of '''Bengal Marine''' In 1877 the Bombay Marine and the Bengal Marine were combined to form [[Indian Navy|HM Indian Marine]], which became the Royal Indian Marine in 1892 and the Royal Indian Navy in 1935. Amongst other contributions, this article contains extracts from FIBIS member [[User:Sage|Sage's]] unpublished manuscript of records for Genealogists interested in India.

== Introduction ==According to Massey ,<ref>[1http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12617 ''Recollections of Calcutta for over Half a Century''],by Montague Massey</ref> <blockquote>

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distinction, of course I cannot say, but at a later period, recognising possibly the injustice of their action, they rescinded their prohibition, and now the pilots sit in the seats of the mighty amongst the members of the other services. "</blockquote> == History of the Bengal Pilot Service == Brice and Labey<ref name=Brice> Labey, Capt G.T. and Brice, Capt R.K.H. (1970), ''The Bengal Pilot Service''. National Maritime Museum, Ref. THS/12/1-9. Some chapters are available online, see Historical books online, above. </ref> give a date of 1651 for the foundation of the service, but according to James Prinsep's Chronological Tables,<ref>Prinsep, James (1836). [http://books.google.com/books?id=BTYGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA160 ''Useful Tables, Forming an Appendix to The Journal Of The Asiatic Society. Part the Second. Chronological and Genealogical Tables''], page 160. Google Books</ref> the service dates back to 1669:<blockquote>[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.</blockquote> The Bengal Pilot Service was abolished on the 15th May, 1948.<ref name=Brice/>

THE BENGAL PILOT SERVICE== Composition of the Pilot Service ==The following comprises extracts from my unpublished manuscript This table shows the number of records for Geneaolgists interested pilots of each rank in the service in India1853. {| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"|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)

1. [[==Records===== National Maritime Museum]] (Greenwich). ===

1a. '''THS 12 ‘The ''The History of the Bengal Pilot Service’ 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. Some chapters of text, but no Appendices are available online.<ref name=Brice/>

1b. [['''The Percy-Smith Collection]] (MS 88/006)'''

Item (18) Bengal Marine ‘Particulars of certificates granted by The Percy-Smith Collection is not held in the Government of Calcutta up to December 1902 to Masters, Mates and Engineers in Mercantile Marine’main [http://www.nmm.ac. These records are uk/researchers/library/ Caird Library] of particular interest the Museum - access to persons looking for River Pilots who were born in India who were the items must be requested a week or so in service in the 1890’s and at the turn of the twentieth century. The entries inlcude the person’s name, date and place of birth , class of certificate, certificate number and its date advance of grantinga 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 divide into: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)<ref> The index is arranged alphabetically by name of orphan, with details such as date of birth, baptised, name of father and occasionally more details such as where apprenticed, etc. A cross reference card at the front of the index reads 'see also Alipore schools', which may possibly refer to further material in one of the Percy- Smith collections held in other institutions . "Four Orphan Schools in Calcutta and the Lawrence Military Asylum, Sanawar, Part II" [[FIBIS Journals|''FIBIS Journal'']] No 23, Spring 2010, by Maureen Evers, page 14</ref>; Bengal Marine and Bengal Pilots (1700-1914) . This link, from Len Barnett’s page Bengal Marine. (see below) shows the information available on one of the Bengal Marine [http://www.barnettmaritime.co.uk/bengalsmith.htm index cards]. Note that there are index cards about other topics in the Percy Smith collection at the [[Society of Genealogists]]

The === Asia, Pacific & Africa Collection, British Library (India Office) ===There are many records of the India Office at the [[Percy-Smith CollectionBritish Library]] is not held in the main Caird Library of the Museum you need to request access that pertain to the items a week or so in advance of your vistBengal Marine and Bengal Pilot Service.

2. Records marked (#) should appear on [[Asia, Pacific and Africa CollectionFamilySearch]] /LDS microfilms: 2028922 - 25; 2029155. [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog Search the FamilySearch Catalog] and see [[British LibraryFamilySearch Centres]] (India Office)for viewing access.

{| border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"!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/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.|}

Most of these records have been microfilmed. The originals are fragile and slowly detoriating so viewing of the microfilms is recommended both for ease of use (especially making printed copies) and for conservation. Note that the hard copy microfilm index file on display at the British Library uses the old L/AGMAR/20 & 21 1814 -Post 1947 Includes C numbering for these records and a translation has to be made using the concordance tables at the back of leave the L/MAR index file. For example, L/MAR/8/3 used to be L/MAR/C/768 and service pensions the microfilm index tells us that L/EMAR/C/6-7 1880-1924 Pilot service recruitment information 768 is on IOR NEG 35431. The new numbering is in a different order to the original. Some records are split across two films, for this period contained within these papersexample L/MAR/8/2 is on IOR NEG 35430 and 35431. The following table provides a direct lookup of the film numbers.

L/MAR/8/1-20 1793-1880 Various lists of employees and 3 provide the most detailed information about volunteers in (new recruits). Note that where films are available they are not on the Bengal Marine open shelves and Pilot Service have to be ordered using the online system.

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"|-!width="40%"|Description!!Date!!IOR Shelf Mark!!IOR Film Ref.!!LDS Film Ref.|-|Appointment, baptismal and other certificates of volunteers||1818-1844||L/MAR/C8/689 17941||IOR NEG 35410||FHL BRITISH Film 2028926 Item 2|-|Certificates of volunteers||1844-1830 Appointments to Bengal Pilot Service1858||L/MAR/8/2||IOR NEG 35430/1||VAULT BRITISH Film 2028996 |-|Certificates of volunteers||1858-1861||L/MAR/C8/704# 3||IOR NEG 35431||VAULT BRITISH Film 2028997|-|Nominations||1858-61 Indian Navy1861||L/MAR/8/4|||||-|List of ranks of volunteers||1838-1861||L/MAR/8/5|||||-|Lists of pilots giving dates of promotion etc., Bengal A-M||1796-1858||L/MAR/8/6?||IOR NEG 35408||FHL BRITISH Film 2028925 Items 7-8|-|List of pilots, N-Z||1796-1858||L/MAR/8/7?||IOR NEG 35408||FHL BRITISH Film 2028926 Item 1|-|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|-|Quarterly Returns of Europeans in their Order of Station in the Pilot Establishment||1836-1853||L/MAR/8/8||IOR NEG 35432/3|||-|Quarterly Returns||1853-1862||L/MAR/8/9||IOR NEG 35433|||-|Quarterly Returns||1862-1880||L/MAR/8/10||IOR NEG 35433|||-|Quarterly Returns||1793-1833||L/MAR/8/11||IOR NEG 35432|||-|||||L/MAR/8/12||IOR NEG 35405|||-|||||L/MAR/8/13||IOR NEG 35456|||-|||||L/MAR/8/14||IOR NEG 35405|||-|||||L/MAR/8/15||IOR NEG 35405|||-|||||L/MAR/8/16||IOR NEG 35408|||-|||||L/MAR/8/17||IOR NEG 35408|||-|||||L/MAR/8/18||IOR NEG 35408|||-|||||L/MAR/8/19||IOR NEG 35406/7|||-|||||L/MAR/8/20||IOR NEG 35406/7|||-|Printed rules & Regulations||1827||L/MAR/8/21|||||-|||||L/MAR/8/22|||||-|||||L/MAR/8/23|||||}

L/MAR/C/755-756# 1848-60 Europeans in === Society of Genealogists ===Information available at the service [[Society of the Bengal marineGenealogists]]:

L/MAR/C/760Bullock’s ''Directory of Non Official Europeans in India (1780-761# 18241820) – lists of Europeans and Anglo-64 Indians not in the King’s Service''. The information extracted from the East India Register and similar publications for Bengal marine civil .. Includes a number of Free Mariners/ Country Traders/ Free Merchants, Indigo Planters and marine casualties L/MAR/C/762-763 Bengal Marine records of serviceRiver Pilots. However persons in many other professions are included, also some women and children.

V*[http:/12 1896-1926 Covenanted pilots /fibis.ourarchives.online/bin/aps_browse_sources.php?mode=browse_dataset&id=86&s_id=189 Appendices From M.H. Beattie] are included on FIBIS Search (see details below)* Index to L/MAR/8/1 (in preparation)* Pilots and pilot vessels contained in the Marine lists in civil publications such as theBengal Histories East India Register, see the list of Service[http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php?title=Directories_online Directories]

3''On The Hooghly'' by Malcolm H Beattie (1935) is a personal account of the Hooghly Pilot Service, in which the author served 1878-1913. SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTSOf particular interest to family Historians are the appendices: Bullock’s ‘Directory :Appendix A comprises a list of Non Official Europeans in India serving Branch Pilots (17801847-18201888) – lists :Appendix B comprises a list of Europeans men joining the Service as Licensed Pilot or Covenanted Pilots (1858-1876) and Anglo-Indians not in men who joined the King’s Service’. The information extracted service as recruits from the East India Register training ships Worcester and similar publications for Bengal.. Includes Conway (1877-1893) :Appendix C comprises a number list 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. men joining the Service (1893-1916)

4==External links==*[http://www.barnettmaritime.co.uk/index.htm British Maritime History - Realistic genealogical guides to surviving records and more], Len Barnett’s site, has a section on [http://www.barnettmaritime.co.uk/mainbengal.htm Bengal Marine]. PUBLISHED WORKSBeattie ‘On *[http://map-india.org/artwork/shipping-in-the-hooghly-calcutta-kolkata/ Photograph: Shipping in the Hooghly, Calcutta] by Samuel Bourne c 1860. Numbered 1726. MAP Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore.*Photographs from the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, The Hooghly’ (1935)Learning Lab website.**[https: This is a personal account of //learninglab.si.edu/resources/view/90091 Sailing ships and other boats docked along river in Calcutta], undated, by Bourne & Shepherd. Photograph titled ”Shipping in the Hooghly . 2582”. Same image [http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/s/019pho0000015s1u00085000.html British Library] dated 1890s.**[https://learninglab.si.edu/resources/view/90145 Sailing ships and other boats docked along river in Calcutta], undated, by Bourne & Shepherd. Photograph titled ”Shipping on the Hooghly. 2583”. Same image [http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/s/019pho0000015s1u00087000.html British Library] dated 1890s.**[https://learninglab.si.edu/resources/view/90093 Strand Road with Indians with bullock carts and horse-drawn carriages and sailing ships and other boats on river in Calcutta], undated, by Bourne & Shepherd. Photograph titled ”Strand Rd & The Hooghly. Calcutta. 2599”.*[http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/48726/francis-frith-the-strand-calcutta-english-about-1865-1875/ Photograph: The Strand: Calcutta] c 1865–1875 by Francis Frith. The J Paul Getty Museum.*[http://www.hmsconway.org/Sea%20Career%20Calcutta.pdf "Old Conways & India – Part II: Calcutta & The Hooghly v11"] by Alfie Windsor 2017. hmsconway.org. The Bengal Pilot Serviceand accounts by Old Conways, old boys from the author served 1878British training school ship HMS Conway. ===Individuals===*[https://www.quivis.uk/dum/index_dum.html Arthur David Linklater, Master Mariner] -1913Duncan 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. Of Originally with scans and transcripts of many original documents, exploring the site is recommended, but pages of particular general interest to family Historians are include::*[https://www.quivis.uk/dum/images/portrait/675x900/pilot.jpg Scan of pilot's certificate] for pilotage of the appendicesHooghly.:*[https://www.quivis.uk/dum/hooghly/index_hooghly.html Introduction To Hooghly River Pilotage]: *[https://www.quivis.uk/dum/hooghly/hooghly-pilotage1.html Hooghly Pilotage ca. 1910-16]Appendix A comprises a list :*[https://www.quivis.uk/dum/dana/index_dana.html Dictionary of Sea Terms 1841/51] Adapted from ''The Seaman's Friend...'' by R. H. Dana 1st ed. 1841, 6th edition 1851.*[http://sayeedsjournal.wordpress.com/chapter-23-on-the-river-hooghly/ serving Branch Pilots On the River Hooghly] by Khwaja Sayeed Shahabuddin (1847born 1923). He was a Leadsmen Apprentice with the Bengal Pilot Service for one year in 1946-1888) 1947, until he needed to wear glasses, which was not allowed.

Appendix B comprises a list ===Historical books online===* ''History of men joining the Bengal Pilot Service '' complied by Captain G. T. Labey and compiled and edited by Captain R. K. H. Brice 1963. National Maritime Museum, Ref. THS/12/1-9, which includes Appendices. [http://remistry.wordpress.com Chapters] (scroll down) are available online (remistry.wordpress.com) as Licensed Pilot or Covenanted Pilots follows, but there are no Appendices online:**[https://remistry.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/preface/ "Preface"]**[https://remistry.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/introduction-geographical-historical/ "Introduction : Historical"]**[https://remistry.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/1-the-early-merchant-adventurers-and-the-hooghly-1534-–-1696/ "Chapter 1. The Early Merchant Adventurers And The Hooghly (18581534 – 1696)"] **[https://remistry.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/2-1876) years-of-expansion-1700-–-1800/ "Chapter 2. Years Of Expansion 1700 – 1800"]. At the end of this chapter is some further text under "Chapter 5. Years Of Consolidation 1800 – 1900".*''On The Hooghly'' by M H Beattie 1935. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.77306 Archive.org mirror version], from Digital Library of India.*Read about the Bengal Pilot Service in September 1800, Pilot Mr Parry, the perils of shifting sand in the river, with numerous sharks and men who joined alligators [http://books.google.com/books?id=mKgIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA41 Part 10], page 41 from ''Cursory Remarks, on board the service as recruits from ship Friendship'' by Mary Anne Reid, continues [http://books.google.com/books?id=mKgIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA249 part 11] Google Books *The Bengal Pilot Service in 1859. The author was aboard HMS Retribution [http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924026424196#page/n171/mode/2up ''Memories of the training ships Worcester Sea'', page 151] by Admiral Penrose Fitzgerald 1913 Archive.org*[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.225565/page/n61/mode/2up ''An Unqualified Pilot''] page 57 ''Land And Sea Tales For Scouts And Guides'' by Rudyard Kipling 1923. Archive.org. [http://www.telelib.com/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/LandandSea/unqualifiedpilot.html Transcribed version]. :An interesting and informative short story for younger readers depicting the work of a pilot on the Hooghly. The story was first published in 1895 Conway (1877-1893) and set in a time 'a good many years ago'. Notes from the [http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_unqualified1.htm Kipling Society].

# [http[Category://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12617 Recollections of Calcutta for over Half a CenturyOccupations]] by Montague Massey# On The Hooghly. Malcolm H Beattie, Philip Allan & Co. Ltd. (1935)[[Category:Bengal Presidency]][[Category:Naval and Maritime]]