The British India Line in the Arabian Gulf, 1862–1982

65 Pages·2014·3.05 MB·English

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Journal of the National Center for Documentation & Research
ثوحبلاو قئاثولل ينطولا زكرلما اهردص�ي ةمكّ مح ةيملع ةلمج
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2013 برمس�يد • شر�اعلا ددعلا • ةس�مالخا ةنس�لا a Volume 5 • Number 10 • December 2013
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ISSN 1729-9039 i ISSN 1729-9039
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Liwa
Journal of the National Center for Documentation & Research (NCDR)
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Liwa
Journal of the National Center for Documentation & Research
Volume 5 • Number 10 • December 2013
Contents
Early Mail Transport in, and from, the Gulf 1798-1939 3
Douglas N. Muir
Curator, Philately of the British Postal Museum & Archive, since 1988
Writing the General Treaty: Anne Thompson and the 25
British Expedition to the Gulf, 1819-1821
Dr. Penelope Tuson
Former Curator of Middle East Archives, Oriental & India Office Collections,
The British Library. Currently heads her own Historical Research Consultancy
The British India Line in the Arabian Gulf, 1862–1982 40
Mr. Michael Quentin Morton
Independent writer and researcher
2
Early Mail Transport in, and from, the
Gulf 1798-1939
Douglas N. Muir
Introduction
Communication is the lifeblood of society and trade. In this age it is instant emails
or phone messages. In the past, over any distance, it was largely by post. In the Gulf
it was trade and external political requirements which first brought demands for a
postal service. This was the thread which bound the area together, or - perhaps better
- the spine which connected it with the outside world. Yet any such service clearly
depended on transport and until the 1920s that had to be by camel overland through
the desert or, more normally, by ship overseas. Even when properly organised and
regular services came into being these were quite slow.
With the coming of organised transport also came the founding of local postal
agencies. The rise of one depended on the other, but for many years there were
very few agencies serving the whole Gulf. It also took a long time for mail to arrive,
especially if a weekly, or fortnightly, steamer had just been missed. Transit time to
Bombay was up to 14 days.
Almost nothing has been published on the subject of mail transport in the Gulf. Even
the magisterial volumes of documents reproduced and edited by Anita Burdett under
the heading “Communications and Transport”, despite the title, do not touch on sea
mails or overland routes, only referring to airmails. This paper is intended to remedy
that gap, as far as is possible.
Early days
For the very early period details are hazy and documentation scant. Although the
East India Company had maintained ships in the Gulf to safeguard trade and the
route from Britain to India through the 17th and 18th centuries, communication
with the outside world was irregular. It was not until 1 January 1798 that packet
ships were established between Bombay and Basra (and thence overland to Europe).
Packet ships here were vessels conveying mails, goods and passengers at regular
intervals, and at this time clearly sailing vessels. They were to provide a monthly
service, though with extremely high charges, as was common at that time. Postage
was to be paid on delivery at the extortionate rate of 10 rupees a single letter
“weighing one quarter of a Rupee”. For those weighing more than that the cost
3
Douglas N. Muir
was 15 rupees, rising to 20 rupees.1 Users were requested to write their letters
in duplicate because on arrival at Basra one bag was forwarded via Aleppo and
another via Bagdad to reduce any losses as far as possible. There cannot have been
much demand.
The route from Basra to Aleppo was served by a dromedary post under the supervision
of an agent of the East India Company. Thence to Constantinople (and thus beyond)
was by horse. This desert post was closed in 1833, being superseded by the sea route
via the Red Sea. The current of history would eventually bypass the Gulf as a main
route between Europe and the Indies and beyond for almost a century.
For several years Thomas Waghorn, of the Bengal Pilot Service, had been campaigning
for a steam service from Britain via the Mediterranean and the Red Sea which would
shorten the long journey round the Cape of Good Hope considerably. Sir Francis
Freeling, Secretary to the British Post Office, described him as “a very old friend of
ours and rather a troublesome one.”2
A steam vessel, the Hugh Lindsay (411 tons, built in Bombay), made experimental
trips from 1833 from Bombay to Suez and proved that this was a practicable
proposition. So, the whole question of steam navigation to India was now examined
by a Select Committee of the House of Commons, and Waghorn was one of those
giving evidence.
Dated 14 July 1834, the Committee’s conclusions were, in essence, that experiments
with steam vessels should continue in the Red Sea route and that the Euphrates – Gulf
route should be tested, subsidised to the tune of £20,000 a year. “By the joint use of
these two routes a regular monthly service could be established between England and
India throughout the year.”3 Colonel Francis Chesney was put in charge of the survey
of the Tigris and Euphrates and in 1837 he proposed that the Government of India
re-open the desert post and establish a line of steamers to run fortnightly between
Bombay and Basra.
With this in mind, new British rates of postage were officially documented in Acts of
Parliament and detailed Treasury Warrants. The Gulf is first mentioned in 1837 and
this was repeated in 1840. Letters of a single sheet, or later up to half an ounce, were
to be charged 1s extra for transit either through the Red Sea or the Gulf.4
Between 1836 and 1840 the Hugh Lindsay made at least three trips from Bombay to
the head of the Gulf with mails from India for Britain.5 The reverse trip for the mails
in 1837 was described as follows:
The mails go to Beyrout in Syria by the Falmouth packet, & are
sent to Hit on the Euphrates by the Consul at Damascus. From Hit
they are conveyed to Mahommra below Bussorah [Basra], under the
superintendence of Mr Hector (late of the Euphrates expedition). Here
they were put on board the Hugh Lindsay, steamer, on 13 May, but
4
Early Mail Transport in, and from, the Gulf 1798-1939
she not being ready for sea 4 days were lost at Mahommra & some
additional hours at Bushire.6
This was hardly satisfactory as a regular service and so in 1839 the East India Company
“sent out to Busra three iron steamers for use on the Tigris, specially constructed for
river navigation, and a letter service was established between the Vice-Consulate at
Busra and the Consulate General at Bagdad.”7 The use of steamships was critical as
it offered the promise of much greater regularity, being less dependent on weather.
These steamers were the Nimrod, Assyria, and Euphrates, but they were withdrawn
towards the end of 1842 and the service via the Gulf “withered” as a result. From this
it can be seen that the main route was to be by the Red Sea.
From late 1835, after the Malta steam packet had been extended to Alexandria,
Waghorn had established a connecting overland service from Alexandria to Suez and
agreed additional charges for this with the British Post Office. This service lasted at
least until 1841.
In 1839 the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company gained the mail steamer contract
from Falmouth to Alexandria. By 1841 it had added Oriental to its name, becoming
the P & O with the contract through to Bombay. To inaugurate this service the
steamer Hindostan (2,018 tons) left Southampton on 24 September 1842 to operate
out of Calcutta, via Galle and the new coaling station of Aden, to Suez. This then
became the normal route.
Figure 1. P & O’s steamer Hindostan leaving Southampton to inaugurate the mail contract
via the Red Sea (National Postal Museum postcard)
5
Douglas N. Muir
Mail from the Gulf had to join up with this main artery by circuitous routes.
In 1843-44 the dromedary post was re-established across the Syrian
desert from Bagdad to Damascus, and from Damascus via Beyrout
communication was maintained with Constantinople and England,
and except when opportunities occurred for the despatch of mails by sea
to Bombay by an Indian Navy vessel, letters from Bagdad and Busra for
India were sent by the desert route via Damascus and Beyrout through
Egypt; and from Bushire via Teheran and Alexandria.8
First Steamships & Postal Agencies in the Gulf
It was not until 3 March 1862 that the Secretary of State for India wrote to the
Government of Bombay to say that he was “willing to sanction the establishment
of a line of steamers for postal purposes between Bombay and the ... Gulf calling at
Karachi, limiting the number of annual trips to eight.”9 The Bombay Government
then invited tenders for a mail service between Bombay and Karachi (and vice
versa) twice a month to connect with the arrival of mails from England via the Red
Sea, commencing on and after 1 July that year. At the same time there should be a
mail service eight times a year between Bombay and the Gulf via Karachi (and vice
versa). These contracts were then undertaken by the British India Steam Navigation
Company (B.I.) and a regular six-weekly service was established between Bombay
and Basra. In 1866 the service was made monthly.
This is according to an official postal memorandum dating from 1888.10 On the
other hand, the official history of the shipping company, published much later in
1956, states that the original 1862 service had “started bravely enough in 1862 on
a fortnightly basis” - which seems less likely. That later history went on to say “the
service became intermittent for a while and was often enough completely suspended
for months on end during periods of bad weather and extreme recalcitrance on the
part of the people ashore.”11 A third source agrees with the initial six-weekly service
but states that it became fortnightly in 1868 and weekly in 1875.12 Other routes
served by the company included Bombay to East Africa and Calcutta to Rangoon.
As a result of the new mail service, regular or otherwise, small post offices were
established in Bushire and Muscat, both opening on 1 May 1864. The head postal
establishment for the Gulf was that at Bushire. These agencies came under the control
of the British Indian Post Office in Bombay (later Karachi) and internal Indian
postage rates were charged, with Indian stamps being sold. Both were full post offices,
though that at Muscat was later downgraded to the status of a Sub Office. There being
no Persian post office at Bushire, that agency also delivered letters in the town and
surrounding area and there were also mails to the interior.
Shortly afterwards, further postal agencies were officially opened, generally
subordinate to the British Political Officers in the particular town. On the Persian
6
Early Mail Transport in, and from, the Gulf 1798-1939
coast sub post offices were opened experimentally at Bandar Abbas and Linga on 1
April 1867. Both became fully established relatively soon after their foundation. In
Turkish Arabia offices were established at Basra and Bagdad on 1 January 1868. These
offices were connected by the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company mail
steamer on which Indian postage stamps were also sold.
That same year, 1868, saw a sub post office being opened at Guadur (on the route
of the telegraph line and a port of call for the steamers) on 12 April. There were
no more formal establishments until the 1880s when an office was established at
Jask, again a station on the Indo-European Telegraph line (1 September 1880), and
Bahrain (1 August 1884). However, Bahrain already had a limited service from 1875
when the local agent for the steamship company performed some of the tasks of
a Sub Postmaster. For an allowance of Rs 15 a month he dealt with unregistered
letters only, making up bags for Bushire and Bombay. Equally, for some years prior
to the establishment of a recognised post office at Jask, the Assistant Superintendent
in charge of the Telegraph station had performed the functions of a postmaster in
an informal way. A mail bag was exchanged with the Karachi post office by the mail
steamer.13 Thereafter, the tasks continued to be undertaken by a telegraph clerk.
The mail steamer service had started in 1862 and it was only gradually that postal
agencies were established, and not for every port. In the meantime, for ports without
a post office, a B.I. officer acted as postmaster on board ship. Letters were collected
by recipients from the B.I. Agent’s office. There was also a letter box on board the
steamers where letters could be posted and presumably Indian stamps were also
available.
Letters were also taken by small local boats to the mail steamer ports of call. The first
steamship did not visit Bahrain until the summer of 1869. Before that the British
Resident in Bushire and his Agent in Bahrain sent their correspondence aboard
dhows and the occasional naval ship. The journey of 120 miles took two days for a
dhow with a favourable wind.14
B.I. Contract Extended in 1875
Dated 14 April 1875, a new contract was agreed with B.I. with revised, extended
sailings to the Gulf and with several more ports of call. The service of B.I. Line No. 9
now included Guadur, Jask, Bandar Abbas, Linga, Bushire, Fao and Basra as contract
ports of call, with Bahrein optional. Steamers were to be of not less than 700 tons
gross register, with engines of 100 horse power. (Table 1) The time allowed between
ports, and the minimum stay in them, were all specified in detail.15
7
Douglas N. Muir
Table 1 1875 Line No. 9.
Once a week starting from Bombay on fixed days.
Ports to be called Distance from Time allowed for Minimum period of
at or as near port to port the runs from stay at ports
thereto as the port to port at
steamers can with 7½ miles an hour
safety approach
Miles Hours
Bombay
Verawal* 192 25½ 3 hours of day-light
Porebunder* 65 8¾ 3
Mandavie* 148 19¾ 3
Kurrachee 182 24¼ One day of 24 hours
Guadur 311 41½ 3 hours of day-light
Muscat 189 25¼ 6
Jaskh 140 18⅔ 3
Bunder Abbas 130 17⅓ 3
Linga 120 16 3
Bahrein* 246 32¾ 6
El Katif* 61 8¼ 3
Bushire 171 22¾ One day of 24 hours
Koweit* 158 21 3 hours of day-light
Fao 85 11¼ 3
Mahommerah* 37 5 3
Busreh 21 2¾ Two days or 48 hours
And back by the
same route
One other service was also specified in the contract, though of less importance,
from Aden once every four weeks. (Table 2) However, this may only have been a
proposal or, if it ran, for a short duration only. Spellings of names in all the tables
are as in the original sources, as is the terminology. Places marked * were optional
ports of call.
In 1878 the contract was renewed for the weekly service with Muscat, Guadur, Jask
and Bahrein still remaining fortnightly ports of call. “The steamers put in to Bahrein
only on the voyage up the Gulf. On the return journey, mails from Bushire, &c., for
Bahrein are dropped at Linga and picked up by the next up steamer.”16
8