The attached image is the first page of the passenger list for the voyage of the Kaiser I Hind from London to Calcutta on 12th October 1893.
The passenger list shows what appears to be part of a fishing fleet. There are no obvious fishermen on board, however, because this is a very special type of fishing fleet. All the people on this page are noted simply as being “ladies and gentlemen”. Reading down the list of names, past Mrs Wright, Mrs Simpson, the infant and ayah (Indian nanny), you come to Miss Max, Miss Cowell, Miss Blyth, Miss Graham… a long sequence of unmarried women, down to Miss Sandys and Miss Good. This is the suspected “fleeting fleet”: marriageable young women sailing out to India in search of eligible bachelors, preferably the so-called “heaven-born” serving in the Indian Civil Service or officers in the Army. The fleet sailed out from Britain in the autumn or early winter and spent the next few cooler Indian months socialising at the British clubs and angling for a groom. There was always a shortage of unattached British women in India, so the arrival of the fishing fleet was doubtless fondly awaited by sincere and ardent gentlemen ready to be affianced, not to mention by dastardly bounders who enjoyed toying with a lady’s affections for the season.
Unsuccessful women – the “returned empties” – re-embarked for Britain in the spring.
According to the charity British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia, 2 million British and other Europeans are buried in the Indian sub-continent. Many more British people than realise it have a connection with India. If you are interested in the subject of the British in India from a family history perspective, two excellent places to start are BACSA’s website and the Families in British India Society.
Images
Extracts from The Simon Wallenburg’s Press Books on Anglo Indian Heritage.
As years rolled on the practice of marrying Indian wives was
successful but with the opening of the Suez Canal the necessity
of it disappeared. Soon after, the opening of the overland
route via the Suez Canal made voyaging to India less arduous,
less expensive, and less dangerous than before; with the result
that English woman began to come out in considerable numbers
in what was termed the fishing fleet, and the ugly head
of claimed race superiority soon became ascendent as they had
to compete with the better looking and educated Anglo Indian
women. Marrying the local women even those of mixed blood
fell into disrepute.
As Quoted in Alick Stark’s Hostages to India simon wallenberg Press
When the pure blooded Britisher although born in India,
resorted to a woman of the country he came from he wronged
community to which he belonged he wronged British society
in India by not providing a home to an Anglo-Indian who was
precluded from marrying an Indian husband because of the
virulent caste system.
Ships departing for India manifests show lists of Miss Max,
Miss Cowell, Miss Blyth, Miss Graham. Long sequences of
a few thousand unmarried women, down to Miss Sandys and
Miss Good. This is the suspected “fleeting fleet”: marriageable
young women sailing out to India in search of eligible bachelors.
In that era of large families in England, the only prospect for
girls without dowry or physical beauty was spinsterhood.
Victor Jacquemont, a French botanist visiting India at the
time was not much impressed by the English ladies he met at
Calcutta and other places. He wrote (1830): “Portionless girls
who have not succeeded in getting married in England arrive
here in cargoes for sale on honourable terms,”
Another Frenchman, who served as an officer in the East
India Company army, Capt Edouard Warren, considered the
parents’ calculations of costs, risks and rewards rather sordid.
In this situation many of the girls became accomplished
flirts. As long as the girl made a suitable catch in the end, flirting
was accepted as a pleasant activity except when the girl
overdid it. The young civilian was considered a prime catch, £
300 a year dead or alive
The fleet sailed out from Britain in the autumn or early
winter and spent the next few cooler Indian months socialising
at the British clubs and angling for a groom. Unsuccessful
women – the “returned empties” – re-embarked for Britain in
the spring. —
Alick Stark In Hostages to India Published by the Simon wallenberg Press says says about Colo Alfred Rowe
Lt Col Alfred Rowe writes about the plight of the Anglo Indian
girls at that time. “Almost overnight on the instigation of
the ‘ladies’ from England if a mixed marriage or a marriage to
an Anglo Indian girl took place, There was a revolt against his
conduct his comrades practically ostracised him under pressure
from their new English wives. Rowe writes “These English
women caused grief and misery with their immoral ways in
comparison with the native and Anglo Indian women”.
A verse from the lays of Ind says in regards to the European
women of the fishing fleet.
Pale faded stuffs by time grown faint
will brighten up through art;
A Britain gives their faces paint
For sale at India’s mart.
At times young English wives with old husbands got involved
in scandalous affairs with younger men and even eloped with
them. Here is another verse from the ‘Lays of Ind’.
Colonel White was over forty;
Jane, his bride was seventeen;
She was also very naughty
For she loved a Captain Green”!
The ladies from England made sure that the prevailing
public opinion should hold that when the occasion for intermar29
riage with Indians had disappeared, those who had recourse
to it forfeited all claim to condonation and it was made into
wanton outrage on society.
Clearly with the arrival of the European ladies in large numbers
due to the easy access via the Suez route that manners
and times suddenly changed. Mixed marriages would not be
tolerated and preference was to be given fishing fleet arrivals
over indigenous Anglo Indian girls, from this point of time.
As time passed, more and more European memsahibs appeared
on the scene and emerged as supporting stars in the
great imperial drama of the white mans burden to rule over
the coloured people. The memsahibs inculcated a feeling of
racial superiority and brought a little England in the midst of
India. Anglo Indian officers of the company, however high their
rank and length of service, now being of inferior and mixed
blood ceased to be invited to the homes and functions of the
pure European population. Unfortunately those who paid the
penalty were the hapless children of the British fathers and
Indian mothers.
The East India Company encouraged this type of apartheid
as it was the dawn of “enlightened imperialism”. For with the
Victorian church preaching a new Christian morality in Britain,
theft through conquest and subjugation of people outright could
not be justified and was against Christian values. Therefore
In order to justify a Private company’s conquest of a nation it
had to show to all, that the inhabitants India were enslaved
for their own good.
It was now the “White mans burden to rule over the inferior
races, the white man brought civilization to the childlike
Indian and African who needed to be led and was incapable
of managing his own affairs. Because to accept the Indians as
civilized would meant that colonisation over them could never
be justified, and would be in contradiction with the Christian
faith, there was no option but to disparage the natives and
consider them inferior, in the scheme of things where one side
was the master and the other the slave, one could say but its
for their own good we are here.
Do you know if there are any shipping records of these
girls. I am trying to locate my great great grandmother
Catherine Woods, whom I believe married my g.g.g. in
around 1841.
Do you know if there any shipping name records of these
girls. I am looking for my g.g.g.Catherine Woods whom I
believe married my g.g.g. Sgt. Major William Roe around 1841?