29,493
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
no edit summary
* [[EIC Mercantile Marine]]. The Mercantile Marine was the principal merchant shipping service supporting the company's trade with India and the Far East. It was in operation from 1600 to 1834.
* [[Bombay Marine]]. The Bombay Marine was the fighting navy of the EIC. In the later nineteenth century and twentieth century it was renamed several times, ultimately becoming the Royal Indian Navy in 1935.
*Bengal Marine. The best known part was the [[Bengal Pilot Service]] which was responsible for guiding shipping between along the Hooghly River between Calcutta and the Bay of Bengal. The river could only be navigated by day on account of the many dangerous banks and shoals.<ref>[http://blog.bullfarmoast.co.uk/?page_id=67 Henry Alfred Coggan’s Diary 1865. London to Calcutta]. The author, aged 19, worked his passage to India as a crew member on board the Staffordshire.</ref> Bengal Marine also included War Steamers, also called Sea Steamers, which were ships fitted with guns, and river boats which were used to transport troops and other passengers, and cargo. In (at least) the 1840s-1850s the river boats were part of Inland Steam, or the Inland Steam Service and were described as Iron Steam Vessels appropriated to Inland Navigation, consisting of Steamers, Accomodation Boats and Cargo Boats. It seems likely that once private riverboat companies were established they took over the services of Inland Steam.
In 1877 the Bombay Marine and the Bengal Marine were combined to form HM Indian Marine, which became the Royal Indian Marine in 1892 and the Royal [[Indian Navy]] in 1935.
==Malim Sahib's Hindustani==
A Malim Sahib was a ship’s officer. There was a specialised nautical, bazaar baht or bat, vocabulary spoken by Indian crews.
A dictionary was published in 1920, ''The Malim Sahib's Hindustani'' <ref>''The Malim Sahib's Hindustani: for use both ashore and afloat in connection with Lascars and all other low-caste natives of India who speak the bazaar "bat”'' by C T Willson, Bombay Pilot Service. “For ship's officers who wish to acquire a working knowledge of low Hindustani spoken by native crews, coolies, servants and longstoreman generally. All nautical terms and words in common use both ashore and afloat are included"</ref>, which became a required text book for all Cadets, Officers, Radio Officers and Engineers, on joining the British India Steam Navigation Company.<ref>Feltham, John. [http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/INDIA/2002-10/1035457929 Sea Cunny] ''Rootsweb India Mailing List'' 24 October 2002. Retrieved 4 December 2015</ref> The language was a mixture of Hindustani-Gujarati-Marathi-Konkani (Ratnagiri), a little Urdu..... a pot pourri of words, but simple and effective.<ref name= Malim>"The Maalim Saabs Hindustani" [http://trsearecalls. blogspot.com/2013/11/the-maalim-saabs-hindustani-part-1.html Part 1], [http://trsearecalls.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-malim-sahibs-hindustani-part-2.html Part 2] Mariner’s Nostalgia website. Mandatory for British Officers on B I Ships.</ref> The vocabulary was considered similar to a dialect, in that a European who had learnt this vocabulary was said to speak Malim Sahib's (Sahibs) Hindustani. The officers' titles were: Captain - Captain sahib; C/O - Burra malim sahib;2/O - Majla Malim sahib; 3/O - Sajla Malim sahib; 4/O - or other Junior - Chota malim sahib.<ref name=Malim/>
== External links ==
