A description of the dock yard at Bombay as seen trough the eyes of George Viscount Valentia in November 1804

In the Critical Review is a account published of the voyages made by George Viscount Valentia in the years 1802-1806. H arrived at Bombay 14 September 1804 and gave an impression of what he saw and thought. One things he noticed was the famous dock yard which he described around 1 November that year. (1)

p. 368: “There is no place, says Lord Valentía, in our Indian possessions, where we are so vulnerable as at Bombay, ‘from the smallness of the surrounding territory, and the distance from which all supplies must be drawn.’ Lord V. informs us, that most of the situations in the marine arsenal of Bombay have sunk into sinecure employments; and, if his information be correct, the abuses which prevail in the dock-yard of this settlement are not to be paralleled even by those which have been discovered in the dock-yards of this country. The establishment of the dock-yard at Bombay ‘is almost entirely composed of Persees.’ ‘The person, who contracts to supply the timber, and the person who examines it, are both Persees; consequently the articles are frequently of inferior quality. The master builder has only people of his own persuasion under him; no complaint therefore is ever made of neglect of work on the one hand, or of overcharges on the other.’ The dock-yard is said to be a fashionable lounging place for all the idlers of the town, and many of the artificers only make their appearance to answer to their names at roll-call, without any possibility of detection, as the yard is a sort of public thoroughfare: and ‘they may pass and repass as often as they choose.’”

Source

The Critical Review: or, Annals of Literature. Vol XVIII. London, 1810. Digitized by Google.

Note

1. See also on this weblog “The dockyard of the Indian navy at Bombay in 1818 described by George Augustus Frederick Fitzclarence Munter”, published 25-9-2009.