Service elsewhere

[brian]

Hello Alaric!

I can’t give a precise example of an individual RN officer joining the EIC, but my reaction to your question from general principles is as follows.
1.The term ’resign his commission’ is a little anachronistic. Unlike the army whose commissions were ‘perpetual’, the commissions of naval officers were technically letters of appointment. In other words, a person was not appointed as ‘a Lieutenant in HM Navy’ but a ‘a Lieutenant on HMS......’ In theory therefore when the ship paid off and he was unemployed he didn’t have a commission to resign from. Of course, if he were serving on a particular ship and wanted to leave during a voyage then he would have had to resign that commission. Clearly this legal nicety didn’t stop officers on half pay from describing themselves a ‘Lieutenants RN’ and all remained on the Navy List..
2.In time of peace (and unemployment), the navy encouraged officers to seek other maritime careers (foreign navies, the merchant service etc) and even allowed them to count this service as legitimate sea time when applying for promotion. As you rightly say, their unavailability would have excluded them from half pay.
3.As I understand it, it took connections and pull to get a berth with the EIC and it was expected to be long term committment (notwithstanding the fact that a the round voyage to the East took two years.). Would an ordinary half pay officer have been able to pull enough strings? Likewise the pay and the possibilities of private trading made it a highly lucrative form of employment. Another question that occurs to me is therefore whether an officer of the EIC (whether he had an RN connection or not) would have wished to leave such a well paid, socially prestigious and – indeed – patriotic calling as the EIC in order to join the queue of half pay officers looking for jobs in the RN where demand for posts always exceeding the supply and employment far from guaranteed.

Brian

[PMarione]

There are some examples of Lieutenants RN taking a berth in an HEIC ship and many more in a merchant ship when on half-pay.
I don't know of any example aod a Captain doing so.
HEIC was a "family" affair like the RN with not too much love between the two.

They only forfeited their half-pay when taking a "civil" appointment like Commissioner in a DY, one of the Boards or a Gov employement.

@+P

[brian]

Interesting point.

Orders in Council going back to 1715 laid down that unemployed officers were not entitled to receive half pay if they
art 3. obtained employment without leave of absence
art 4. 'left His Majesty's Dominions'
art 5. held a 'public employment'

How this would affect RN officers working for the EIC is not entirely clear. The answer would be to find one and see if he continued to get his half pay!

Brian

[PMarione]

I have found 36 officers who served in the HEIC but most of them before fetching a commission in the RN thence not being entitled to half-pay.

An interesting candidate is Lt Richard Colnett (1780) who made a successful career captaining several HEIC vessels to India and China.
He died in November 1813 while in command of the HEIC ship Castle Eden.
Don't know if it has something to do but he was only 1.55 m tall, even shorter than Sarkozy

Lt William Pedder (1824) was first lieutenant of the HEIC ship Nemesis during the First Opium War, 1839–1842.

art.3 was sometimes enforced when they engaged in foreign navies like Cochrane in South America
art.4 certainly was not enforced as plenty of officers lived on half-pay on the continent

A major problem for the admiralty was that they even didn't have the whereabouts of the officers: at tne beginning of the war, they had to put annoucement in the press to contact them and say that they had to come back !
Difficult to imagine today but time was slower then.

@+P

[brian]

Cochrane had been dismissed from the navy before leaving for S America and would not have been eligible for half pay!

Brian

[PMarione]

You're right.
I was more thinking of the officers who accompanied him.

@+ P

[brian]

You are, of course absolutely correct in that the very large number of British officers who served with Cochrane in the various S American navies (and, indeed, afterwards) lost their half pay. That is, if they were identified and reported to the Admiralty!
Only one small nit to pick. They did not actually accompany Cochrane. The majority were recruited separately and were there before he arrived.

Brian