1.
French corsairs
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Corsairs were privateers, authorized to conduct raids on shipping of a nation at war with France, on behalf of the French crown. Seized vessels and cargo were sold at auction, with the corsair captain entitled to a portion of the proceeds, by acting on behalf of the French Crown, if captured by the enemy, they could claim treatment as prisoners of war, instead of being considered pirates. Because corsairs gained a reputation, the word corsair is also used generically as a more romantic or flamboyant way of referring to privateers. The Barbary pirates of North Africa as well as Ottomans were sometimes called Turkish corsairs, the word corsair comes directly from the French word corsaire, itself borrowed from the Italian corsaro. This derives from the Latin cursus, meaning course, the French word corsaire may also come as a mispronunciation of the Arabic word qorṣaan, yet the term pirate had been in use in French since the Middle Ages. The corsairs were privateers working for the King of France attacking the ships of France’s enemies, the corsair was ordered to attack only the ships of enemy countries, theoretically respecting neutrals and his own nations ships. If he did not respect this rule, he was treated as a pirate. The corsairs activities also provided the King with revenue as the licence required them to hand over a part of their booty to the King. In common with privateers of other nationalities, however, they were considered pirates by their foreign opponents. Jean de Châtillon, who was a bishop, in 1144 gave the town of Saint-Malo the status of rights of asylum which encouraged all manner of thieves and rogues to move there and their motto was Neither Breton, nor French, but from Saint-Malo am I. Saint-Malo however, progressed and in 1308 the town was made into a commune to encourage the commercial activities of craftsmen as well as merchants. This did not really work out and later in 1395 the town became a free port. During this period, there was an intense drive to improve, not only the speed of the ships involved in this contest. It was a matter of life or death, and immense wealth was at stake, Jean dAngo, father and son, came to be among the wealthiest and most influential men in France. Giovanni da Verrazano and Jean Fleury are among the heroes of this epic saga about which so little has been written. The activities of the corsairs were so profitable that the Minister of the Navy used this in his strategy to make money, moreover, the King used to take one quarter and even one third of the booty. The corsairs activities weakened Frances enemies, indeed, the English trade losses were very important from 1688 until 1717. In a note based on an examination of Lloyds List from 1793 to 1800, losses to capture,4314, recaptured 705, Net –3639 Perils of the sea,2385 plus 652 driven on shore, of which 70 recovered, Net –2967
2.
Cartier (1787 ship)
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Cartier was a brig launched in 1787 for the Bengal Pilot Service as a pilot ship operating at Balasore Roads. The French privateer Robert Surcouf captured her, and then used her to capture the East Indiaman Triton on 29 January 1796, the British Royal Navy subsequently recaptured her. The brig Cartier operated in Balasore roads, in the Indian Ocean, on 21 January 1796 the French privateer corvette Émilie, captained by Robert Surcouf, captured her. Surcouf had the four 6-pounder guns of Émilie mounted on Cartier, renamed her Hasard, transferring to his new prize, Surcouf left ten men on Hasard as a prize crew and returned to Île de France, on Triton. During the journey back, in the month of February 1796, Hasard encountered the 74-gun HMS Victorious, sea Fights and Corsairs of the Indian Ocean, Being the Naval History of Mauritius from 1715 to 1810. Biographie maritime ou notices historiques sur la vie et les campagnes des marins célèbres français et étrangers, phipps, John A Collection of Papers Relative to Ship Building in India. Also a Register Comprehending All the Ships, built in India to the Present Time. Histoire des marins français sous la République, de 1789 à1803
3.
Robert Surcouf
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Surcouf started his career as a sailor and officer on the slave ships Aurore, Courrier dAfrique and Navigateur. Having risen to captain, and in spite of the prohibition of trading by the National Convention in 1793. He then captained the merchantman Émilie, on which he engaged in commerce raiding despite lacking a letter of marque and he preyed on British shipping, capturing the East Indiaman Triton, before returning to Île de France, where his prizes were confiscated. He then returned to France, where he obtained money from the government. Returning to the Indian Ocean, Surcouf captained the privateers Clarisse and Confiance, raiding British, American and he captured the East Indiaman Kent on 7 October 1800. Returning to France, he was awarded the Legion of Honour and he briefly returned to the Indian Ocean in 1807 on the custom-built Revenant before returning to France. There, he armed privateers and merchantmen, after the Bourbon restoration, he organised fishing expeditions to Newfoundland and amassed a considerable fortune. He died in 1827 and is buried in a graveyard at Saint-Malo, Robert Surcouf was born 12 December 1773 in Saint-Malo to a family of ship-owners. His father, Charles-Ange Surcouf de Boisgris, was the grandson of Robert Surcouf de Maisonneuve, on his mothers side, Robert was a distant relative of René Duguay-Trouin. When his parents sent him to Dinan college to become a priest, he fled at age thirteen to enlist on the merchantman Héron, on 3 March 1789, he enlisted as a volunteer on the 700-ton Aurore, under Captain Tardivet, a slave ship bound for India. Aurore sailed to Pondicherry and ferried troops bound for Isle de France, on her next journey, seeking to purchase slaves on the Horn of Africa, Aurore was wrecked in Mozambique Channel, drowning 400 black slaves chained in the orlop. Promoted to officer, Surcouf enlisted on the Courrier dAfrique, another slave ship, Captain Tardivet then brought him over as Lieutenant on his new ship, Revanche. On Revanche, Surcouf made several expeditions off Madagascar, Surcouf enlisted as a helmsman on the French Royal Navys 20-gun fluyt Bienvenue, under Lieutenant Haumont, bound for France. Bienvenue arrived at Lorient on 2 January 1792, where Surcouf discovered the political changes France had undergone in the wake of the French Revolution, after six months, Surcouf enlisted as a lieutenant on the slave ship Navigateur, under Captain Lejoliff. She departed on 27 August 1792 for Mozambique before sailing to Isle de France, rising to the rank of captain, Surcouf took command of the brig Créole, a four-gun slave ship. Upon his return to Isle de France, agents of the Committee of Public Safety inspected Créole for evidence of slave trading, but left empty-handed as Surcouf had already sold his slaves. When British naval forces arrived to blockade Isle de France, he served as an ensign on the 40-gun frigate Cybèle. In the spring in 1795, Surcouf took command of the 180-ton, privateer schooner Modeste, renamed Émilie, with a 32-man crew and four 6-pounder guns, armed by Malroux and Levaillant
4.
Triton (mythology)
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Triton is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the sea. He is the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, god and goddess of the sea respectively and he is usually represented as a merman where he has the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish, sea-hued, according to Ovid his shoulders barnacled with sea-shells. Like his father, Poseidon, he carried a trident, however, Tritons special attribute was a twisted conch shell, on which he blew like a trumpet to calm or raise the waves. Its sound was such a cacophony, that when blown, it put the giants to flight. According to Hesiods Theogony, Triton dwelt with his parents in a palace in the depths of the sea. The story of the Argonauts places his home on the coast of Libya, when the Argonauts were lost in the desert, he guided them to find the passage from the river back to the sea. Triton was the father of Pallas and foster parent to the goddess Athena, Pallas was killed by Athena accidentally during a sparring fight between the two goddesses. Triton can sometimes be multiplied into a host of Tritones, daimones of the sea, in the Virgils Aeneid, book 6, it is told that Triton killed Misenus, son of Aeolus, by drowning him after he challenged the gods to play as well as he did. Over time, Tritons class and image came to be associated with a class of creatures, the Tritons, which could be male or female. Tritons were a race of sea gods and goddesses born from Triton, Triton lived with his parents, Poseidon and Amphitrite, who was also known as Celaeno, in a golden palace on the bottom of the sea. According to Homer it was called Aegae, unlike their ancestor Poseidon who is always fully anthropomorphic in ancient art, Tritons lower half is that of a fish, while the top half is presented in a human figure. This is debated often because their appearance is described throughout history. Ordinary Tritons were described in detail by the traveller Pausanias, the Tritons have the following appearance. On their heads they grow hair like that of marsh frogs not only in color, the rest of their body is rough with fine scales just as is the shark. Under their ears they have gills and a nose, but the mouth is broader. Their eyes seem to me blue, and they have hands, fingers, under the breast and belly is a tail like a dolphins instead of feet. They are often compared to other Merman/Mermaid like beings, such as Merrows, Selkies and they are also thought of as the aquatic versions of Satyrs. Another description of Tritons is that of the Centaur-Tritons, also known as Ichthyocentaurs who are depicted with two feet in place of arms
5.
Rotherhithe
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Rotherhithe is a residential district in south east London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. Historically, the area is the most northeastern settlement in the county of Surrey and it is located on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping and the Isle of Dogs on the north bank, and is a part of the Docklands area. It borders Bermondsey to the west and Deptford to the south east, Rotherhithe has a long history as a port, with many shipyards from Elizabethan times until the early 20th century and with working docks until the 1970s. In the 1980s the area along the river was redeveloped as housing, through a mix of warehouse conversions. Rotherhithe is located 4.5 km east of Londons centre point, Rotherhithe, being an area of the Docklands, has the largest Chinese population in Southwark. The name Rotherhithe derives from the Anglo-Saxon Hrȳðer-hȳð meaning landing-place for cattle, the first recorded use of this name was in about 1105, as Rederheia. St. Marys Church is at the centre of the old Rotherhithe village, the dock has been remodelled, and its northwest half retained as an ornamental lake, renamed Canada Water. The canal has remained as a walkway and water feature within the redeveloped area, Rotherhithe is the home of the football team Fisher F. C. which plays its games at St Pauls Stadium. The league 1 team Millwall Football Club is located nearby in the London Borough of Lewisham. In January 2009 the London Mayor Boris Johnson said he would not fund the bridge, citing budget cuts due to the credit crunch, however the idea is still being supported by Sustrans. There are two Anglican churches in Rotherhithe St. Marys Church, and Trinity Church, there are two Roman Catholic churches, St Peter and the Guardian Angels, and Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Kings Stairs Gardens is a park on the river towards the Bermondsey boundary. In September 2011 Thames Water announced that they wanted to build an access shaft for the super-sewer Thames Tunnel, severn Islands Leisure Centre occupies the site of the old Rotherhithe Town Hall. The building ceased to be a hall in 1905 when the former Rotherhithe Council merged with the old Bermondsey Borough Council. The old Rotherhithe Town Hall became a library and a museum and it was razed to the ground by repeated bomb hits and near misses during the Second World War. Rotherhithe had its own hospital, St Olaves Hospital, on Lower Road close to the old town hall. Built originally in the early 1870s on land adjoining Rotherhithe Workhouse, it became the infirmary of St Olaves Union in 1875, and was renamed St Olaves Hospital in 1930. Subsequently, becoming part of the Guys Hospital Teaching Group in 1966, it closed in 1985, the Terriss Theatre opened in 1899 and was later renamed the Rotherhithe Hippodrome of Varieties
6.
East Indiaman
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East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India Companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vessels belonging to the Danish, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese. Some of the East Indiamen chartered by the British East India Company were known as tea clippers, English East Indiamen usually ran between England, the Cape of Good Hope and India, where their primary destinations were the ports of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. The Indiamen often continued on to China before returning to England via the Cape of Good Hope, when the company lost its monopoly, the ships of this design were sold off. A smaller, faster ship known as a Blackwall Frigate was built for the trade as the need to carry heavy armaments declined and these include the Danish, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese and Swedish East India companies. East Indiamen carried both passengers and goods, and were armed to defend themselves against pirates, initially, the East Indiamen were built to carry as much cargo as possible, rather than for speed of sailing. The East India company had a monopoly on trade with India and China, East Indiamen were the largest merchant ships regularly built during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, generally measuring between 1100 and 1400 tons burthen. Two of the largest were the Earl of Mansfield and Lascelles being built at Deptford in 1795, the Royal Navy purchased both, converted them to 56-gun fourth rates, and renamed them Weymouth and Madras respectively. They measured 1426 tons on dimensions of approximately 175 feet overall length of hull,144 feet keel,43 feet beam,17 feet draft, in England, Queen Elizabeth I granted an exclusive right to the trade to one company in 1600. The company grew to more than the trade between England and India, but the ships described in this article are the type used in the 17th to the early 19th centuries to carry the trade. The Royal Navy acquired several East Indiamen, turning them into fourth rates, in some cases the East Indiamen successfully fought off attacks by the French. The ships normally had two decks for accommodation within the hull and a raised poop deck. The poop deck and the deck below it were lit with square-windowed galleries at the stern, to support the weight of the galleries, the hull lines towards the stern were full. Later ships built without this feature tended to sail faster, which put the East Indiamen at a disadvantage once the need for heavy armament passed. These ships were used for the China run, until the coming of steamships, these Indian-built ships were relied upon almost exclusively by the British in the eastern seas. None sailed to Europe and they were banned from English ports, many hundreds of Indian-built Indiamen were built for the British, along with other ships, including warships. Notable among them were Surat Castle, a 1, 000-ton ship with a crew of 150, Lowjee Family, of 800 tons and a crew of 125, and Shampinder, of 1,300 tons. Another significant East Indiaman in this period was the 1176-ton Warley that John Perry built at his Blackwall Yard in 1788, and which the Royal Navy bought in 1795 and renamed HMS Calcutta
7.
East India Company
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The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India. The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the Companys shares. Initially the government owned no shares and had only indirect control, during its first century of operation the focus of the Company was trade, not the building of an empire in India. The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own armies, exercising military power. Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances, the official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies. Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean, one of them, Edward Bonventure, then sailed around Cape Comorin to the Malay Peninsula and returned to England in 1594. In 1596, three ships sailed east, however, these were all lost at sea. Two days later, on 24 September, the Adventurers reconvened and resolved to apply to the Queen for support of the project, the Adventurers convened again a year later. For a period of fifteen years the charter awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Anybody who traded in breach of the charter without a licence from the Company was liable to forfeiture of their ships and cargo, the governance of the company was in the hands of one governor and 24 directors or committees, who made up the Court of Directors. They, in turn, reported to the Court of Proprietors, ten committees reported to the Court of Directors. According to tradition, business was transacted at the Nags Head Inn, opposite St Botolphs church in Bishopsgate. Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601, in March 1604 Sir Henry Middleton commanded the second voyage. Early in 1608 Alexander Sharpeigh was appointed captain of the Companys Ascension, thereafter two ships, Ascension and Union sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1607–8. Initially, the company struggled in the trade because of the competition from the already well-established Dutch East India Company. The company opened a factory in Bantam on the first voyage, the factory in Bantam was closed in 1683. During this time belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat. In the next two years, the company established its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal
8.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
9.
The Downs (ship anchorage)
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The Downs are a roadstead or area of sea in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast, between the North and the South Foreland in southern England. In 1639 the Battle of the Downs took place here, when the Dutch navy destroyed a Spanish fleet which had sought refuge in neutral English waters, the anchorage has depths down to 12 fathoms. Even during southerly gales some shelter was afforded, though under this condition wrecks were not infrequent, storms from any direction could also drive ships onto the shore or onto the sands, which—in spite of providing the sheltered water—were constantly shifting, and not always adequately marked. According to the Deal Maritime Museum and other sources, there are records of as many as 800 sailing ships at anchor at one time. In the present day, with the English Channel still the busiest shipping lane in the world, cross-Channel ferries, Deal Timeball Tower Museum Deal Maritime Museum
10.
Chennai
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Chennai /ˈtʃɛnnaɪ/, formerly known as Madras /məˈdrɑːs/ or /-ˈdræs/) is the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, it is one of the biggest cultural, economic, according to the 2011 Indian census, it is the sixth-largest city and fourth-most populous urban agglomeration in India. The city together with the adjoining regions constitute the Chennai Metropolitan Area, Chennai is among the most visited Indian cities by foreign tourists. It was ranked 43rd most visited city in the world for year 2015, the Quality of Living Survey rated Chennai as the safest city in India. Chennai attracts 45 percent of tourists visiting India, and 30 to 40 percent of domestic health tourists. As such, it is termed Indias health capital, as a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Chennai confronts substantial pollution and other logistical and socio-economic problems. Chennai has the third-largest expatriate population in India at 35,000 in 2009,82,790 in 2011, tourism guide publisher Lonely Planet named Chennai as one of the top ten cities in the world to visit in 2015. Chennai is ranked as a city in the Global Cities Index and was ranked the best city in India by India Today in the 2014 annual Indian city survey. In 2015 Chennai was named the hottest city by the BBC, National Geographic ranked Chennais food as second best in the world, it was the only Indian city to feature in the list. Chennai was also named the ninth-best cosmopolitan city in the world by Lonely Planet, the Chennai Metropolitan Area is one of the largest city economies of India. Chennai is nicknamed The Detroit of India, with more than one-third of Indias automobile industry being based in the city, in January 2015, it was ranked third in terms of per capita GDP. Chennai has been selected as one of the 100 Indian cities to be developed as a city under PM Narendra Modis flagship Smart Cities Mission. The name Madras originated even before the British presence was established in India, the name Madras is said to have originated from a Portuguese phrase mae de Deus which means mother of god, due to Portuguese influence on the port city. According to some sources, Madras was derived from Madraspattinam, a north of Fort St George. However, it is whether the name was in use before the arrival of Europeans. The British military mapmakers believed Madras was originally Mundir-raj or Mundiraj, Madras might have also been derived from the word Madhuras meaning juice of honey or sugarcane in Sanskrit. The nativity of name Chennai, being of Telugu origin is clearly proved by the historians. The first official use of the name Chennai is said to be in a deed, dated 8 August 1639
11.
Bengal
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Bengal is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in Asia, which is located in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Geographically, it is made up by the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta system, in 2011, the population of Bengal was estimated to be 250 million, making it the most densely populated region in South Asia. An estimated 160 million people live in Bangladesh, while 91.3 million people live in West Bengal, the predominant ethno-linguistic group are the Bengali people, who speak the Indo-Aryan Bengali language. Bengali Muslims are the majority in Bangladesh, Bengali Hindus are the majority in West Bengal. Dense woodlands, including rainforests, cover Bengals northern and eastern areas. In the littoral southwest are the Sunderbans, the worlds largest mangrove forest, in the coastal southeast lies Coxs Bazaar, the longest beach in the world at 125 km. The region has a climate, which the Bengali calendar divides into six seasons. Bengal has played a role in the history of Asia. In antiquity, its kingdoms were known as seafaring nations, at times an independent regional empire, or a bastion of larger empires, the historical region was a leading power of the Indian subcontinent and the Islamic East. Bengali culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature, music, art, architecture, sports, currency, commerce, politics and cuisine. The name of Bengal is derived from the ancient kingdom of Banga, theories on the origin of the term Banga point to the Proto-Dravidian Bong tribe that settled in the area circa 1000 BCE and the Austric word Bong. The term Bangaladesa is used to describe the region in 11th century South Indian records, the modern term Bangla is prominent from the 14th century, which saw the establishment of the Sultanate of Bengal, whose first ruler Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah was known as the Shah of Bangala. The Portuguese referred to the region as Bengala in the Age of Discovery, most of the Bengal region lies in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, but there are highlands in its north, northeast and southeast. The Ganges Delta arises from the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra, the total area of Bengal is 232,752 km2—West Bengal is 88,752 km2 and Bangladesh 147,570 km2. The flat and fertile Bangladesh Plain dominates the geography of Bangladesh, the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet regions are home to most of the mountains in Bangladesh. Most parts of Bangladesh are within 10 metres above the sea level, because of this low elevation, much of this region is exceptionally vulnerable to seasonal flooding due to monsoons. The highest point in Bangladesh is in Mowdok range at 1,052 metres, a major part of the coastline comprises a marshy jungle, the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world and home to diverse flora and fauna, including the royal Bengal tiger. In 1997, this region was declared endangered, West Bengal is on the eastern bottleneck of India, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south
12.
Diamond Harbour
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Diamond Harbour is in the southern suburbs of Kolkata, on the eastern banks of the Hooghly River quite near where the river meets the Bay of Bengal. This small town is a weekend tourist spot located in South 24 Parganas district. Earlier known as Hajipur, this place was named Diamond Harbour by the British although currently there are no piers or jetties at this location. It used to be considered a safe resting spot for oceangoing ships, after the Rupnarayan River joins the Hughli, the river bends south and widens out to a form a huge expanse of water. A little further down, the Haldi river joins it, in earlier days Diamond Harbour used to be a stronghold of Portuguese pirates. The ruins of the fort of Chingrikhali can still be seen and it is believed to be linked with the Portuguese but some opine that the East India Company built it before they could establish themselves in Kolkata. There is an old lighthouse nearby, Diamond Harbour municipality was established in 1982. As per 2011 Census of India Diamond Harbour had a population of 41,802. Population below 6 years was 3,688, the total number of literates in Diamond Harbour was 32,753. As of 2001 India census, Diamond Harbour had a population of 37,238, males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Diamond Harbour has an literacy rate of 72%, higher than the national average of 59. 5%, male literacy is 77% and. In Diamond Harbour, 10% of the population is under 6 years of age and this small town with a picturesque setting is the gateway to the south-western part of the district leading to such places as Gangasagar, Kakdwip, Namkhana and Bakkhali. Gangasagar is a Hindu pilgrimage site where Hindus perform ablutions to wash away their sins, Bakkhali is gaining in popularity as a beach resort. There is a five star hotel with a magnificent panoramic view of the river at Raichak, jetties at Diamond Harbour, Raichak and Nurpur provide steamer service to the other bank of the wide river estuary. There are few places like Village Bolshiddhis Shiv Temple i. e.3 km away from Diamond Harbour Town. Sarisha hat is famous and nice joint for weekend grocery and Ramakrishna Vidya Mandir, the area being in the proximity of the Bay of Bengal, there is scope for development of ports and shipping activity. The special economic zone at Falta is one of the eight zones of the Government of India. The Government of West Bengal proposes to construct a port at Kulpi with facilities for handling containers
13.
Saint Helena
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It is part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Saint Helena measures about 16 by 8 kilometres and has a population of 4,534 and it was named after Saint Helena of Constantinople. The island, one of the most remote islands in the world, was uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in 1502 and it was an important stopover for ships sailing to Europe from Asia and South Africa for centuries. Napoleon was imprisoned there in exile by the British, as were Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo, between 1791 and 1833, Saint Helena became the site of a series of experiments in conservation, reforestation and attempts to boost rainfall artificially. This environmental intervention was closely linked to the conceptualisation of the processes of environmental change, Saint Helena is Britains second-oldest remaining overseas territory after Bermuda. The Portuguese found the island uninhabited, with an abundance of trees and they imported livestock, fruit trees and vegetables, and built a chapel and one or two houses. Englishman Sir Francis Drake probably located the island on the leg of his circumnavigation of the world. In developing their Far East trade, the Dutch also began to frequent the island, the Dutch Republic formally made claim to Saint Helena in 1633, although there is no evidence that they ever occupied, colonized, or fortified it. By 1651, the Dutch had mainly abandoned the island in favour of their colony at the Cape of Good Hope. In 1657, Oliver Cromwell granted the English East India Company a charter to govern Saint Helena and, the following year, the first governor Captain John Dutton arrived in 1659, making Saint Helena one of Britains oldest colonies outside North America and the Caribbean. A fort and houses were built, after the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, the East India Company received a royal charter giving it the sole right to fortify and colonise the island. The fort was renamed James Fort and the town Jamestown, in honour of the Duke of York, between January and May 1673, the Dutch East India Company forcibly took the island, before English reinforcements restored English East India Company control. The company experienced difficulty attracting new immigrants, and sentiments of unrest, a census in 1723 recorded 1,110 people, including 610 slaves. The island enjoyed a period of prosperity from about 1770. Captain James Cook visited the island in 1775 on the leg of his second circumnavigation of the world. St. James Church was erected in Jamestown in 1774, the site of this telescope is near Saint Mathews Church in Hutts Gate in the Longwood district. The 680-metre high hill there is named for him and is called Halleys Mount, throughout this period, Saint Helena was an important port of call of the East India Company. East Indiamen would stop there on the leg of their voyages to British India
14.
Whampoa anchorage
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Pazhou is a subdistrict of Haizhu in southeastern Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, in China. Pazhou Island, formerly Whampoa Island, has an area of 15 km2 It is the site of Whampoa Pagoda. Its eastern bay was formerly the chief anchorage for ships participating in Guangzhous foreign trade, traders rented storage for ships supplies and repair shops on Whampoa Island. Images of the anchorage were a theme in 18th-century art. With the expansion of Guangzhou, the subdistrict is now part of its downtown area, the Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center is the current site of the annual Canton Fair. The English, French, and Danish Whampoa and Swedish Wampoa are irregular romanizations of the Chinese Huangpu, the name was used to refer indifferently to the island, its settlement, and its anchorage. Modern Pazhou is an island in the Pearl River with an area of about 15 km2, foreign ships usually depended on local pilots, the relative lack of wind also meant that most sailing ships required towing north from the strait. The main anchorage was off southeastern Pazhou, South of Pazhou was Xiaoguwei and southwest Henan. The Baiyue peoples had settlements around Guangzhou since the Neolithic era, from then on, it formed a major port on the South China Sea, connecting its traders with Hunan and northern China via a network of canals. The port was protected by its city wall and by fortifications, ships of war were not permitted to pass closer to the city. European trade began with the arrival of Rafael Perestrello on a junk in 1516 and was originally conducted directly on Guangzhous waterfront. Portuguese misconduct—and rumors that they were eating the children they were cut off access. Early traders were obliged to follow the winds, arriving between June and September, conducting their business, and then departing between November and February. Typically, cargo was ferried from the ships by its own crew, to avoid theft or piracy, foreign traders began assigning a few of their own seamen to these ships as guards. In 1686, Westerners were allowed to rent accommodations in the quarter to avoid the necessity of shuttling back to Pazhou each night. A comprador dealt with the provisions at Pazhou, where sampan ladies crowded around the ships to do laundry. By then, fixed berths for different nations were established at the anchorage, innermost and westermost were the Americans and after them came the Dutch and the Swedes. Next came the Danes and the French, close to Changzhou and Xiaoguwei, the British were last and outermost
15.
Cape of Good Hope
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The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. In fact, the southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas, when following the western side of the African coastline from the equator, however, the Cape of Good Hope marks the point where a ship begins to travel more eastward than southward. Thus, the first modern rounding of the cape in 1488 by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was a milestone in the attempts by the Portuguese to establish trade relations with the Far East. Dias called the cape Cabo das Tormentas, which was the name of the Cape of Good Hope. As one of the capes of the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a waypoint on the Cape Route and the route followed by clipper ships to the Far East and Australia. The term Cape of Good Hope is also used in three ways, It is a section of the Table Mountain National Park, within which the cape of the same name, as well as Cape Point. Prior to its incorporation into the park, this section constituted the Cape Point Nature Reserve. It was the name of the early Cape Colony established by the Dutch in 1652, just before the Union of South Africa was formed, the term referred to the entire region that in 1910 was to become the Cape of Good Hope Province. When Eudoxus was returning from his voyage to India the wind forced him south of the Gulf of Aden. Somewhere along the coast of East Africa, he found the remains of the ship, due to its appearance and the story told by the natives, Eudoxus concluded that the ship was from Gades and had sailed anti-clockwise around Africa, passing the Cape and entering the Indian Ocean. This inspired him to repeat the voyage and attempt a circumnavigation of the continent, organising the expedition on his own account he set sail from Gades and began to work down the African coast. The difficulties were too great, however, and he was obliged to return to Europe, after this failure he again set out to circumnavigate Africa. Although some, such as Pliny, claimed that Eudoxus did achieve his goal, in the 1450 Fra Mauro map, the Indian Ocean is depicted as connected to the Atlantic. It sailed for 40 days in a south-westerly direction without ever finding anything other than wind and water. According to these people themselves, the ship went some 2,000 miles ahead until - once favourable conditions came to an end - it turned round and sailed back to Cape Diab in 70 days. The ships called junks that navigate these seas carry four masts or more, some of which can be raised or lowered, and have 40 to 60 cabins for the merchants and only one tiller. They can navigate without a compass, because they have an astrologer, thus one can believe and confirm what is said by both these and those, and that they had therefore sailed 4,000 miles
16.
Torbay
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Torbay /tɔːrˈbeɪ/ is a borough in Devon, England, administered by the unitary authority of Torbay Council. It consists of 62.87 square kilometres of land, spanning the towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, Torbay is roughly equidistant from the cities of Exeter and Plymouth. That the Torbay area has been inhabited since Paleolithic times is shown by human bones, a maxilla fragment known as Kents Cavern 4 may be the oldest example of a modern human in Europe, dating back to 37, 000–40,000 years ago. Roman soldiers are known to have visited Torquay during the period when Britain was a part of the Roman Empire, leaving offerings at a rock formation in Kents Cavern. Both Brixham and Paignton appear in the Domesday Book of 1086 and Paignton was given the status of a borough having a market, the first major building in Torquay was Torre Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery founded in 1196. William Prince of Orange landed in Brixham on 5 November 1688, during the Glorious Revolution, the historic part of Paignton is inland, the low-lying coastal fringe was originally salt marsh. Paignton remained a fishing village until the early 19th century. The second phase in the expansion of the area began when Torre railway station was opened in December 1848. The railway was extended to Torquay Seafront station in 1858, Paignton in 1859, as a result of its expansion, Torquay was granted borough status in 1872, and 1902 saw its first marketing campaign to summer tourists. Torbay Golf & Country Club opened in 1933, the club and course closed in the mid 1950s. Tor Bay hosted the events for the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. The County Borough became the Borough of Torbay under local government reorganisation in 1974 and it was made a unitary authority on 1 April 1998 making it responsible for its own affairs. The area is represented nationally at the House of Commons by two MPs, Brixham and part of Paignton fall within the Totnes constituency, with Conservative Sarah Wollaston elected. Torbay is in the South West England constituency of the European Parliament, together with the rest of South West England, until May 2011, Torbay Council had been headed by the first directly elected mayor in the South West region. Conservative candidate Nicholas Bye who won in October 2005, under a system which was later described as a total failure with Bye receiving votes from fewer than 7% of the electorate. However, running as an independent he was defeated in the May 2011 election by Gordon Oliver who stood as a Conservative, for local elections the district is divided into 15 wards. The Council elects 36 councillors in elections every four years. Since the Torbay Council election,2015, the council has a Conservative majority, the composition as of 9 May 2015, There are three main towns around the marine inlet of Tor Bay, Torquay in the north, Paignton in the centre, and Brixham in the south
17.
Pondicherry
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Pondicherry is the capital city and the largest city of the Indian union territory of Puducherry. The city of Pondicherry is situated in Puducherry district of the union territory and it is affectionately known as Pondy, and has been officially known by the alternative name Puducherry in Tamil since 2006. Pondicherry city consists of 42 wards, wards 1-10 are located in north of the city. Wards 11-19 are located in Boulevard Town and remaining wards are located in the southwest of the downtown, the history of the city of Pondicherry is recorded only after the arrival of Dutch, Portuguese, British and French colonialists. A marketplace named Poduke or Poduca is recorded as a Roman trading destination from the mid 1st century, the area was part of the Pallava Kingdom of Kanchipuram in the 4th century. The Cholas of Thanjavur held it from the 10th to 13th centuries, the Vijayanagar Empire took control of almost all of the South of India in the 14th century and maintained control until 1638 when they were supplanted by the Sultan of Bijapur. The French East India Company established this town as their headquarters in 1674, five trading posts were established along the south Indian coast between 1668 and 1674. The town was separated by a canal into the French Quarter, during the Anglo-French wars, Puducherry changed hands frequently. On January 16,1761, the British captured Puducherry from the French, the British took control of the area again in 1793 at the Siege of Pondicherry amid the Wars of the French Revolution, and returned it to France in 1814. When the British gained control of the whole of India in the late 1850s, Pondicherry, Mahe, Yanam, Karaikal and Chandernagar remained a part of French India until 1954 when it was incorporated into the Indian Union along with the rest of French India. On 18 October 1954 in an election involving 178 people in Pondicherry Municipal and Commune Panchayat,170 people were in favour of independence. The de facto transfer of the French India territories form French governance to the Indian union took place on 1 November 1954, however, the formal de jure transfer of territory agreement between France and India was signed on 16 August 1962. The topography of Pondicherry is the same as that of coastal Tamil Nadu, pondicherrys average elevation is at sea level, and a number of sea inlets, referred to as backwaters can be found. Pondicherry experiences extreme coastal erosion as a result of a constructed in 1989. Where there was once a broad, sandy beach, now the city is protected against the sea by a 2-km-long seawall.5 m above sea level, today, the seawall consists of rows of granite boulders which are reinforced every year in an attempt to stop erosion. As a consequence of the seawall, Pondicherry experiences severe seabed erosion and turbulence at the coastal margin, whenever gaps appear as the stones fall into the continually eroding seabed, the government of Puducherry adds more boulders. Pondicherrys seawall has also caused beach erosion to migrate further up the coast, to the villages in Puducherry. In 2012, the Ministry of Power inaugurated the Smart Grid project in Puducherry, farming around Pondicherry include crops such as rice, pulses, sugarcane, coconuts, and cotton
18.
HMS Calcutta (1795)
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HMS Calcutta was the East Indiaman Warley, converted to a Royal Navy 56-gun fourth rate. This ship of the served for a time as an armed transport. She also transported convicts to Australia in a voyage that became a circumnavigation of the world, the French 74-gun Magnanime captured Calcutta in 1805. In 1809, after she ran aground during the Battle of the Basque Roads and her crew had abandoned her, the East Indiaman Warley was built at John Perrys Blackwall Yard in 1788, the first vessel of the name that Perry built for the East India Company. She made two trading voyages to the Far East for the East India Company, warleys captain for her two voyages was Charles Wilson. Her letter of marque was issued on 7 September 1793, on her second voyage, in July 1793, Warley, Triton, and Royal Charlotte, together with HMS Minerva, participated in the capture of Pondicherry by maintaining a blockade of the port. The Indiamen then sailed for China in early September, on their way to China, the same East Indiamen participated in an action in the Straits of Malacca. They came upon a French frigate, with six or seven of her prizes. The three British vessels immediately gave chase, the frigate fled towards the Sunda Strait. The Indiamen were able to catch up with a number of the prizes, the British restored the prizes to their crews and took the French prize crews as prisoners of war. Had they not carried letters of marque, such behaviour might well have qualified as piracy, the British Government had chartered Hindostan to take Lord Macartney to China in an unsuccessful attempt to open diplomatic and commercial relations with the Chinese empire. In early 1795, the Royal Navy purchased the first Warley and had her original builders, Perry & Co. refit her as a 56-gun fourth rate, under the name Calcutta, at a cost of £10,300. She was one of nine large merchantmen that the Navy Board purchased that year for conversion to convoy escorts, Captain William Bligh was her first commander, assigned to her to supervise her conversion. He took command on 16 April 1795 and commissioned her in May, in October 1795, the crew of the 74-gun HMS Defiance mutinied. Bligh, in Calcutta, was ordered to embark 200 troops and take them alongside Defiance so that they might board her, the threat of the soldiers ended the mutiny for the time being, though the crew of the Defiance mutinied again in 1797 and 1798. Bligh continued to command Calcutta until she was paid off in February 1796, in order for her to fulfill her new role, the Transport Board had the guns on her lower deck removed. As a result she no longer needed as large a crew and her complement fell to 160 officers, Calcutta served in the transport role under Lieutenants Robert Arnold, Edward Jekyll Canes, Richard Pouldon. and John Anderson. Under Poulden Calcutta was at the capture of Minorca in December 1798, on 11 November she was part of a squadron that unsuccessfully chased four Spanish frigates, though two days later Argo recaptured the sloop Peterel, which the Spaniards had captured on the 11th
19.
Fort St. George, India
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Fort St George is the name of the first English fortress in India, founded in 1644 at the coastal city of Madras, the modern city of Chennai. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further settlements and trading activity, thus, it is a feasible contention to say that the city evolved around the fortress. The fort currently houses the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly and other official buildings, the fort is one of the 163 notified areas in the state of Tamil Nadu. The East India Company, which had entered India around 1600 for trading activities, had begun licensed trading at Surat, the fort was completed on 23 April 1644 at a cost of £3000, coinciding with St Georges Day, celebrated in honour of the patron saint of England. The fort, hence christened Fort St George, faced the sea and some fishing villages and it gave birth to a new settlement area called George Town, which grew to envelop the villages and led to the formation of the city of Madras. It also helped to establish English influence over the Carnatic and to keep the kings of Arcot and Srirangapatna, as well as the French forces based at Pondichéry, at bay. In 1665, after the EIC received word of the formation of the new French East India Company, according to the 17th century traveller Thomas Bowrey, Fort St. to be yearly transported to England. The Fort is a stronghold with 6 metres high walls that withstood a number of assaults in the 18th century. It briefly passed into the possession of the French from 1746 to 1749, but was restored to Great Britain under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the Fort Museum contains many relics of the Raj era, including portraits of many of the Governors of Madras. The fort is maintained and administered by the Archaeological Survey of India as a ticketed monument, St Marys Church is the oldest Anglican church in India. It was built between 1678 and 1680 on the orders of the then Agent of Madras Streynsham Master, the tombstones in its graveyard are the oldest English or British tombstones in India. This ancient prayer house solemnised the marriages of Robert Clive and Governor Elihu Yale, the Fort Museum exhibits many items of the period of English and later British rule. This building was completed in 1795 and first housed the office of the Madras Bank, the hall upstairs was the Public Exchange Hall and served as a place for public meetings, lottery draws and occasional entertainment. These relics are reminders of British rule in India, the objects on display in the museum are the weapons, coins, medals, uniforms and other artefacts from England, Scotland, France and India dating back to the colonial period. Original letters written by Clive and Cornwallis make fascinating reading, one set of quaint period uniforms is displayed for viewing, as well. However, the piece de resistance is a statue of Lord Cornwallis. The first ever flown flag after the independence is stored in 3rd floor of the museum, Public are allowed to see but not to touch or take photographs. The museum is mentioned in the novel The Museum of Innocence, the first floor of the building includes the Banqueting Hall, which holds paintings of the Governor of the Fort and other high officials of the Regime
20.
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
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In the United States and the United Kingdom he is best remembered as one of the leading British generals in the American War of Independence. His surrender in 1781 to a combined American and French force at the Siege of Yorktown ended significant hostilities in North America, born into an aristocratic family and educated at Eton and Cambridge, Cornwallis joined the army in 1757, seeing action in the Seven Years War. Upon his fathers death in 1762 he became Earl Cornwallis and entered the House of Lords, from 1766 until 1805 he was Colonel of the 33rd Regiment of Foot. He next saw action in 1776 in the American War of Independence. Active in the forces of many campaigns, in 1780 he inflicted an embarrassing defeat on the American army at the Battle of Camden. He also commanded British forces in the March 1781 Pyrrhic victory at Guilford Court House, Cornwallis surrendered his army at Yorktown in October 1781 after an extended campaign through the Southern states, marked by disagreements between him and his superior, General Sir Henry Clinton. Despite this defeat, Cornwallis retained the confidence of successive British governments, knighted in 1786, he was in that year appointed to be Governor-General and commander-in-chief in India. From 1789 to 1792 he led British and Company forces in the Third Anglo-Mysore War to defeat the Mysorean ruler Tipu Sultan, returning to Britain in 1794, Cornwallis was given the post of Master-General of the Ordnance. Following his Irish service, Cornwallis was the chief British signatory to the 1802 Treaty of Amiens and was reappointed to India in 1805 and he died in India not long after his arrival. Cornwallis was born in Grosvenor Square in London, though his familys estates were in Kent and he was the eldest son of Charles Cornwallis, 5th Baron Cornwallis. His mother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend and his uncle, Frederick, was Archbishop of Canterbury. Fredericks twin brother, Edward, was an officer, colonial governor. His brother William became an Admiral in the Royal Navy and his other brother, James, eventually inherited the earldom from Cornwalliss son, Charles. The family was established at Brome Hall, near Eye, Suffolk, in the 14th century, Frederick Cornwallis, created a Baronet in 1627, fought for King Charles I, and followed King Charles II into exile. He was made Baron Cornwallis, of Eye in the County of Suffolk, in 1661, Cornwallis was educated at Eton College and Clare College, Cambridge. While at Eton, he received an injury to his eye by an accidental blow while playing hockey, from Shute Barrington and he obtained his first commission as Ensign in the 1st Foot Guards, on 8 December 1757. He then sought and gained permission to engage in studies abroad. After travelling on the continent with a Prussian officer, Captain de Roguin, upon completion of his studies in Turin in 1758, he traveled to Geneva, where he learned that British troops were to be sent to the Continent in the Seven Years War
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