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A painting of the East Indiaman ‘Atlas’, shown off South Foreland, near Dover, in broadside view. She sailed on her first voyage to India in 1813 and made at least nine more thereafter until 1830.<br/><br/> The ‘Atlas’ was built in 1812 at Paul's Yard near Hull. She was mounted with 26-guns and had a complement of 130 men at full strength. During her East India Company service she sailed to Madras, Bengal and China under the command of Captain Charles Otway Mayne, who was able to accumulate a fortune as a result of these voyages.
The Dutch East India Company, or VOC, was a chartered company granted a monopoly by the Dutch government to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock. It was also arguably the world's first megacorporation, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, coin money and establish colonies.<br/><br/> The VOC was set up in 1602 to gain a foothold in the East Indies (Indonesia) for the Dutch in the lucrative spice trade, which until that point was dominated by the Portuguese. It also traded with India and established ports, factories and warehouses there.<br/><br/> Between 1602 and 1796, the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, and netted more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods.
East Indiaman was a general name for any ship operating under charter or license to any of the East India Companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. Thus, one can speak of a Danish, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, or Swedish East Indiaman.<br/><br/> In Britain, the Honourable East India Company itself did not generally own merchant ships, but held a monopoly granted to it by Queen Elizabeth I of England for all English trade between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, which was progressively restricted during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.<br/><br/> English (later British) East Indiamen usually ran between England, the Cape of Good Hope and India, where their primary destinations were the ports of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. The Indiamen often continued on to China before returning to England via the Cape of Good Hope and Saint Helena.
The 'Asia' was built in 1811 and is depicted off Hong Kong between 1831 and 1832. Huggins has painted her in starboard broadside, flying the red ensign and distinguishing flags. Chinese junks are shown to left and right of her, with more European ships in the distance depicted in front of what may be 'Lintin' (Nei Lingding) Island.<br/><br/> The subject of Indiamen in the East was a popular one with Huggins who began his working life at sea and served in the East India Company as a steward and assistant purser on board the 'Perseverance', which sailed for Bombay and China in December 1812, returning in August 1814.