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Abstract
In the first half of the nineteenth century, dozens of ships were built in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, for the British Admiralty. The combination of timber from the Malabar teak forests and a skilled Indian workforce produced vessels of the highest quality. But of the ships built in India, only five original, Indian-carved figureheads survive. Records suggest that most of these ships had their figureheads carved in England and either shipped to India or installed when the ships arrived at the Royal Navy dockyards. Using the evidence of the surviving carvings themselves, along with archival records, this study seeks to address the inconsistency of the nineteenth century Indian-built ship’s figureheads, by exploring why some arrived fully carved from India, while others had considerable time and expense spent on a British version. It discusses what the Indian survivors tell us about the differences between the work of the Indian and British carvers, and what the attitude to Indian craftsmanship was during this period. It explores if this had an impact on the Admiralty’s choice of carver, and if other factors were at work.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to the editor and two anonymous peer reviewers for their assistance and suggestions, and their encouragement to take a ‘deeper dive’ into the matter of Western attitudes towards Indian art.
Notes
1 Wadia, The Bombay Dockyard, 382-92.
2 The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA): ADM 106/3123
3 Thomas, British Figurehead and Ship Carvers, 86
4 TNA: ADM 106/1794
5 Cited by Wadia, The Bombay Dockyard, 235
6 Admiralty, Catalogue of Pictures.
7 The Morning Chronicle, 28 Sep. 1840.
8 Longair and McAleer, Objects, Empire and Museums, 226
9 TNA: ADM 106/1795
10 TNA: ADM 87/15
11 Lambert, Trincomalee, 35.
12 Maxwell Malden, pers. comm.
13 Sparrow, ‘Exhibition Review: British folk art’, 6
14 Admiralty, Catalogue of Pictures.
15 Owen, ‘Figureheads’.
16 Crill et al., Arts of India, 12.
17 Ruskin, Aratra Pentelici, 175.
18 Norton, Ships’ Figureheads, 10.
19 Ibid., 13.
20 Qureshi, Tipu’s Tiger and Images of India, 207
21 Ibid., 216
22 TNA: ADM 87/14
23 Lambert, Strategy, Policy and Shipbuilding, 151
24 TNA: ADM 87/15
25 Lambert, Strategy, Policy and Shipbuilding, 151
26 British Library: IOR/F/4/1479/58142
27 National Maritime Museum (hereafter NMM): OLE/3/4
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Clare Hunt
Clare Hunt is a senior curator at the National Museum of the Royal Navy and is based in Hartlepool, charged with the care and management of HMS Trincomalee.