'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎568] (587/622)

568
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAYY.
as to confer some honorary distinctions on Captains Campbell,
Jones, and Adams, for their services either in the field of
diplomacy, as surveyors of the first distinction, or during the
Chinese, Burmese, and Persian Wars, and the Indian
Mutiny. The Service would be highly gratified were these
gallant officers rewarded in the decline of life for services
rendered in its prime; and not less would the surviving mem
bers hail with satisfaction the award of some further recognition
on Captain Rennie, who, since he was honoured, twenty years
ago, with the C.B. for his achievements in China, Burmah, and
Persia, has rendered further good service, as Superintendent of
the Bengal Marine during the Mutiny, and in fitting out a
squadron of ships for the China War of 1860, for which he
received the thanks of Sir James Hope. No officer of the Indian
Navy has yet received the Knighthood of a Military Order;
and it is not too late to render a gracious and well earned
honour on the defunct Service, in the person of one or more
officers who have not unworthily borne the mantle of James,
of AVatson, and of Hayes.
The following is an abstract of the nett annual cost of the
Indian Navy during the last ten years of its existence; and
when it is considered that these sums include the charges for the
Bengal Marine, as the practice was to lump together all the
Marine expenses chargeable to the Indian Treasury, it cannot
be said that the amounts were excessive :—
1853—54 .... .£358,842
1854—55 .... 409,480
1855—56 .... 434,057
1856—57 .... 468,194
During the Indian Mutiny, when the Service had nearly
eighteen hundred European seamen employed in the Naval
Brigade on shore, and the Bengal Marine had, also, large numbers
up-country, the nett changes for the two Services rose to about
one million, but sunk afterwards to the following figures:—
1860—61 .... =£760,000
1861—62 .... 333,000
1862—63 .... 222,000
The average annual cost for the Indian Navy alone, for the
last ten years, was, probably, less than <£350,000; and the
''Times of India," in an article on the 19th of May, 1863,
referring to these figures, expressed an opinion which the result
has borne out, that "the wisdom of abolition is, we think, open
to grave question." The Indian Governments have still charges
to meet for the local Bengal and Bombay Marines, and also
the annual payment of c£70,000 to the Admiralty for the
services of H.M.'s ships, and c£20,000 for the maintenance of
a separate surveying establishment. If we also bear in mind