Atlas, 1813
Unusually for East Indiamen, the Honourable East India Company’s ship ATLAS was built not on the Thames but on the Humber, by Thomas Steemson of Hull. Her first voyage was to Madras, India, and Whampoa, China, in 1813. This was the year the Company lost its monopoly on trade to and from India, although it retained that of the lucrative China tea trade until 1834.
She made a further voyage to Madras, Penang and Whampoa before the end of the Napoleonic War in 1815, carrying an outward cargo of various goods as well as mail, letters of credit and bullion, all of which facilitated trade. On her homeward voyage she brought tea, porcelain, silk and saltpetre for gunpowder. After two transfers of ownership and nine voyages, Captain Charles Otway Mayne, who had commanded her since her commissioning, sold her for £4,100 in August 1830, by which time she was considered fit only to be broken up.
She sailed on her first voyage to India in 1813 and made at least nine more thereafter until 1830. As the picture is dated 1826, it was probably made at the end of her seventh voyage to Madras and China. The ‘ATLAS’ was built in 1812 by Thomas Steemson at Paul's Yard near Hull, her managing owner being James Staniforth. She was mounted with 26-guns and had a complement of 130 men at full strength.
Tonnage 1267 ton (bm), dim. 134.0 x 42.2 x 17.0ft.
During her East India Company service she sailed to Madras, Bengal and China under the command of Captain Charles Otway Mayne, who was able to accumulate a fortune as a result of these voyages. This was not always without problems, since in 1817, the surgeon and second mate of the ‘ATLAS’ complained to the council at Canton that Mayne had taken all the extra 30 tons of private cargo normally allowed by the Company to ships officers. Their claim was upheld.
1820 Sold to Jasper Vaux, still under command of Captain Mayne.
After seven voyages Captain Mayne became the ship's owner when he bought the ship from the Executors of Jasper Vaux who died in 1823.and he placed the command of the vessel under Captain John Hine, after which the ATLAS undertook a further two regular sailings. She arrived at Gravesend at the end of her last voyage in August 1830 and was sold in May 1831 for £4100 to Charles Carter for breaking.
The National Maritime Museum holds a painting of the ‘ATLAS’ by Huggins, see BHC3214. The painting is signed and dated 1822.
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collection ... 14686.html A portrait of the East Indiaman ‘ATLAS’, shown off South Foreland, near Dover, in broadside view.
Great Britain 2013
Source: British Mail. Ships of the East India Company by Rowan Hackman.