The steamers employed in Asian waters, 1819–39
C.A. Gibson-Hill’s 1954 article provides a systematic catalogue of the approximately fifty paddle-steamers that appeared in Asian waters between 1819 and 1839, a period he designates the “experimental era” of steam navigation in the region. Writing from the perspective of a Malayan historian seeking to clear the ground for a future study of regular steam traffic in the Straits Settlements, Gibson-Hill addresses what he identifies as “much confusion” in the existing literature, caused primarily by the repetition of vessel names and the failure of earlier writers to consult contemporary records (p. 120).
Summary
The article’s central problem is one of identification and chronology. Six of the first nine paddle-steamers employed in India—Pluto, Diana, Enterprize, Comet, Irrawaddy, and Ganges—were each succeeded by one or more vessels bearing the same name, and several duplicated sailing vessels still on the Indian registers. Gibson-Hill demonstrates how this naming practice, combined with the unreliable retrospective accounts of writers such as Rear-Admiral Preble, has generated persistent errors in the secondary literature. His method is to work from primary sources—contemporary newspapers, government records, and builder’s registers—to establish the identity, dimensions, engines, and career of each vessel individually, distinguishing between vessels that shared names but were distinct hulls (pp. 120–121).
The narrative is organized chronologically by the date each vessel first saw service in Asia, with fuller treatment given to those that reached Malayan waters. Gibson-Hill identifies five paddle-steamers that appeared in Singapore before 1840: the Vander Capellen (1827), the Enterprize (1829, 1834), the Forbes (1830), the Jardine (1836), and the second Diana (1837–46). He shows that the Diana was the first government steamer permanently based in the Straits, arriving on 2 March 1837 after prolonged local agitation, and that regular steam communication between Singapore and Bengal was not achieved until 1845 (p. 122). The article also documents the broader context of steam development in India, including the Hooghly tug trade, the Ganges river services, and the Bombay-Suez packet run, to provide the operational setting within which the Malayan vessels must be understood.
A significant portion of the article is devoted to debunking specific errors in the literature. Gibson-Hill identifies two “fictitious” steamers—the King-fa and the Snake of Preble’s account—as products of accretion and misattribution (pp. 125–126). He also corrects the widespread misinterpretation of the Rs 36,000 prize awarded to Lt. Johnston in 1827, which has been wrongly attributed to the Enterprize committee rather than to Johnston personally (p. 137). The primary sources underpinning the article include the Singapore Chronicle (1825–37), the Singapore Free Press (1837–45), the Asiatic Journal, the Chinese Repository, and the India Office Library collections in London (p. 126).
Key Findings
- The first steamer employed in Asia was the Nawab of Oude’s steam yacht (19.2 tons), built at Lucknow in 1819 with a single 8 h.p. Butterley engine; it was soon abandoned and left to ruin (p. 127).
- The P. S. Vander Capellen (c. 230 tons), built at Sourabaya in 1825, was the first steamer built in Java and the first to appear in Singapore waters (17–19 April 1827); she was chartered by the Dutch government at $10,000 per month during the Java War (pp. 131–133).
- The P. S. Enterprize (464 tons, O.M.) was built at Deptford in 1825 at a total cost of approximately Rs 430,000; she was purchased by the Bengal Government for £40,000 and served in the Burma War as a packet-boat before being rebuilt at Bombay and finally broken up at Kidderpore in 1838 (pp. 134–139).
- The Calcutta Steam-Tug Association, formed in 1835, made a profit of 53% on its capital in its first three years; by 1839 it operated four tugs on the Hooghly, including the Forbes, Seetakoond, Andrew Henderson, and Dwarkanauth (pp. 121, 150).
- The second P. S. Diana (133 tons), built at Sulkea in 1836 with engines salvaged from the first Diana, reached Singapore on 2 March 1837 and remained in Straits service until January 1846, when she was replaced by the P. S. Hooghly (pp. 157–158).
- By mid-1840 approximately 50 steam vessels were known to have been employed in India and south-east Asia; about 16 had been broken up or converted to sail, leaving some thirty in active service, of which nearly half were new arrivals (p. 161).
Conclusion
Gibson-Hill’s definitive takeaway is that the period 1819–39 represents a distinct experimental phase in the history of Asian steam navigation, characterized by short vessel lifespans, repeated name-cycling, and the absence of any regular scheduled service connecting the Straits Settlements with other ports. The first three such services to run out of Singapore—the Netherlands India Steamboat Company’s Batavia run, the P. & O. Company, and the Fire Queen—all appeared only in 1845, marking the end of the experimental era and the beginning of commercial steam traffic in the region (pp. 133–134, 161).
Context
- Primary archival collections consulted include the India Office Library (London), the Singapore Chronicle and Singapore Free Press (Singapore), and the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (for the plate of the Nawab of Oude’s yacht) (pp. 126, 127).
- The article’s historiographical contribution lies in its correction of the errors propagated by Preble (1883) and other retrospective writers, and in its establishment of a reliable chronological framework for the earliest steamers in Asian waters, which Gibson-Hill notes was originally assembled in 1949 to clear the ground for a subsequent study of regular steam traffic in the Malayan region (p. 126).