Bronze Fastenings Used on an 18th-Century Ship Built for the East India Company

Abstract

To solve the problem of the electrolytic destruction of iron fastenings created by the introduction of copper sheathing on ships, the British Admiralty around 1780 replaced all underwater iron fastenings with hardened copper bolts (Bingeman et al., 2000, p. 222). At least one teak-hulled East Indiaman built in Bombay (Mumbai) in the 18th century was fastened with bronze and not copper bolts. This may have been a directive from Mr Gabriel Snodgrass, the surveyor to the Honourable East India Company (1757–96), already famous in 1771 for introducing iron knees and diagonal braces in their ship construction (Fincham, 1851). Mr Snodgrass was widely consulted by the Admiralty since East Indiamen were considered in many ways to be superior to Admiralty-built ships. The 1788 Bombay-built East Indiaman, Sir Edward Hughes, after nine profitable trading voyages to Madras and China over 16 years, was presented to the Admiralty and became a 38-gun 5th Rate Frigate called Tortoise. Tortoise saw naval service in the Mediterranean as well as with the West African Squadron suppressing the Slave Trade, when fleet reductions in 1834 made it redundant. Rather than scrap this fine vessel with a solidly-built teak hull, it was relegated to be a coal hulk at Milford Haven. When a new requirement arose in 1838 for a store ship serving Ascension Island in the Atlantic, no suitable vessel was readily available, so the coal hulk Tortoise was reprieved to be the future Ascension Island 12-gun guardship (Figure 1). Twenty-one years later on the 18 October 1859, the Admiralty ordered Tortoise to be broken up at Ascension Island (Lyon, 1980). HMS Mæander, built at Chatham Dockyard in 1840, arrived at Ascension Island on 21 January 1860 to replace it (Museum Archive, 1860). The transfer of personnel and stores to Mæander would have taken some time with no apparent need for urgency. Given the position of where the wreck identified as Tortoise lies now, it must have either been sailed from Georgetown or been towed by ships’ boats round to the north corner of the Island between June and September, the calmer months each year; then run ashore on what is known today as Power House Bay (since the power house was constructed in 1960). The bay chosen was shingle, and not a sandy bay used by the green turtles (Chelonia mydas) to lay their eggs.