'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎90] (131/590)

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
pany's service, and Mr. Aislabie was appointed Governor of
Bombay, with positive orders to use every effort to obtain the
release of Sir John Gayer, which was, at length, effected, after
he had languished in confinement for seven years. Mr. Pitt,
President of Fort St. George, had reported to the Court in 1706,
the departure of the English men-of-war, " without suppressing
the pirates, against whom they had been sent to cruise,"
and also wrote of the audacity of the Arab cruisers from
Muscat, which seized every ship they could overpower. During
the following year these Arab pirates, emboldened by their
success, adopted a more regular system of naval warfare, and,
having obtained permission from the King of Pegu to build
ships at the ports of his country, spread their fleets over the
entire seas surrounding the peninsula of India, causing great
losses, especially on the Madras side, while they were so
numerous and powerful in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , that the Shah
solicited naval aid from Bombay. "Already," says Bruce,
"some of their ships carried from thirty to fifty guns, and they
had made descents on several towns on the Malabar coasts, but
to obtain plunder and a fixed station, from which they might
annoy the trade, or with their collected fleet resist the Mogul
or Mahratta fleets, or the more powerful vessels of the European
nations. The Mahrattas, on this occasion, equipped a fleet of
sixty vessels between Bombay and Goa, which acted not only
with the view of repelling the Arab fleets, but as pirates against
all defenceless vessels; while Kanhojee Angria, a Mahratta
chief, possessed at this time a fleet of considerable force, which
had piracy for its only object, and though occupying a port in
the Mahratta country, and, therefore, deemed hostile to the
Moguls, yet, like all Indian chiefs, he kept his own power
distinct, though he acknowledged a kind of political relation
with the sovereignty with which his ports were connected."*
Meanwhile the military and naval establishments were kept
in a state rendering them wholly unable to cope with their
numerous and powerful enemies. Urgent demands were there
fore made for military reinforcements, and for " either a supply
of seamen, or power to impress them from the ships."
Soon after the occupation of Bombay, a portion of the local force,
established at Suratin 1613, was withdrawn for service at Bom
bay, and, on the formation of that island into the Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. , it
became officially known as the Bombay Marine The navy of the East India Company. . An officer was
regularly appointed for the year as Admiral, and others were de
tailed for duty under his orders, the supply being kept up by
drafts of officers and men from the ships arriving from Europe.
During all these years they had been employed in the suppres
sion of piracy as far as their limited strength permitted, in the
protection of Bombay, and also, in conjunction with the
# Bruce's " Annals," vol. iii., pp. 649-50.