https://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-defying-the-british-to-win-the-right-to-sail-2642886
Defying the British to win the right to sail
Indian Navy The Navy marks the date of SS Loyalty’s trans-ocean voyage to UK as National Maritime Day.
Aneesh Gokhale
A blue flag with a swastika fluttered proudly in the clear skies. The flag was of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company, and it fluttered atop a ship called the SS Loyalty. It was April 1919 and the ship was preparing to sail from Mumbai towards London. But this particular journey was unique – for the ship’s owners were all Indians! Unfortunately the day was forgotten thereafter, till being resurrected in 1964 as National Maritime Day.
What was so special about an Indian owned ship sailing to England ?
The fact was that the British administration had over decades caused as many as 102 Indian shipping companies to shut down! They had done this by unethical business practices, levering the brute strength of British owned shipping companies prevalent in India – The British India Steam Navigation (BI) and the P&O. There was no help given to Indians wanting to get into shipping.
In 1892, Sir Jamshedji Tata started a steamer service between India, China and Japan and the British owned competitors slashed their freight rates from nineteen rupees a ton to two rupees in response! Who bore the balance is anyone’s guess! The British Empire never banned any Indian wanting to start his own shipping company, but they put hurdles galore in their way – whether it was getting passengers, cargo or getting paperwork cleared. And so, by and by, between the years 1891 and 1919 over a hundred Indian companies had tried to float their own ship on the high seas and failed or were rather forced to fail in the venture.
All that was to change in April 1919. A chance meeting with a British businessman had alerted Walchand Hirachand Doshi to the ship SS Loyalty, which was then at Bombay Docks. It had begun life as the RMS Empress of India in 1891, before being sold to the Maharaja Madho Rao Scindia of Gwalior in 1914. He renamed it SS Loyalty and refitted it into a military hospital ship, keeping in view the war. Now it was 1919, and Scindia agreed to sell the ship for twenty five lakh rupees. It was a good size vessel, at around hundred and fifty meters with a nice white hull. But where was the money going to come from?
Walchand, at the time around 28-years-old, first went to Narottam Morarji followed by visits to Sir Sawaldas and Kilachand Devchand; influential names in Bombay’s cotton mill industry and the business fraternity. With the money part stitched up, things moved quickly and in March 1919 a new shipping company was born – The Scindia Steam Navigation Company. Interestingly, buying their first vessel from the Scindia of Gwalior is the only link between the two!
But his problems had just begun. It was after all still a hospital ship and Walchand decided to refit it into a passenger cum cargo ship after reaching England, where the cost at one lakh rupees was one tenth the cost in India! So, April 5, 1919 finally dawned and among others Mahatma Gandhi blessed the new journey as did Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir.
Thus began the first cross ocean journey of the first Indian owned merchant ship flying an Indian banner. It sped across the Arabian Sea and through the Suez Canal made its way into Europe. On the twenty third or twenty fourth of the month, it docked at the French port of Marseilles. But when the ship entered England, the smooth sailing ended; no one ready to handle the ship. The reason was simple – no Englishman wanted to upset the British Indian Steamship Company and its boss – James McKay. This person was at the time the tenth richest in England and called the ‘Napoleon of shipping’ in industry circle.
Walchand Hirachand was up against him – a young businessman who had left Indian shores for the first time! But he kept at it, and soon came across a Kennedy, who did not have such high regard for McKay. At last, the repairs could be carried out – but the prices had ballooned to over five lakhs! Walchand and Morarji dipped into the company’s savings and literally scraped the bottom of the barrel to get the ship refitted. Then there was a new problem. BI let out the news that anyone doing business with Walchand would be ignored by the company. This did the trick. Walchand found it next to impossible to fill the refitted ship with passengers or cargo. Finally, Walchand & Morarji managed to convince passengers through their own personal efforts. They also purchased cement and pig iron out of their own money to have something in the cargo holds. Thus, in the face of threats, indifference and bad luck, the SS Loyalty had finished her repairs and prepared to sail back to Bombay at the end of 1919, completing a historic first trip. During his time in England, he also brought in six new ships from the Palace Shipping Company and Indian shipping was on its way. As for SS Loyalty, she did a few more trips to Marseilles and Genoa. Rising coal prices made her expensive to run. Finally, she was scrapped and sold in 1923 for just rupees one lakh!
But the Scindia Steam Navigation Company continued, mostly in the coastal trade business and is still in existence.
Defying the British to win the right to sail
Indian Navy The Navy marks the date of SS Loyalty’s trans-ocean voyage to UK as National Maritime Day.
Aneesh Gokhale
A blue flag with a swastika fluttered proudly in the clear skies. The flag was of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company, and it fluttered atop a ship called the SS Loyalty. It was April 1919 and the ship was preparing to sail from Mumbai towards London. But this particular journey was unique – for the ship’s owners were all Indians! Unfortunately the day was forgotten thereafter, till being resurrected in 1964 as National Maritime Day.
What was so special about an Indian owned ship sailing to England ?
The fact was that the British administration had over decades caused as many as 102 Indian shipping companies to shut down! They had done this by unethical business practices, levering the brute strength of British owned shipping companies prevalent in India – The British India Steam Navigation (BI) and the P&O. There was no help given to Indians wanting to get into shipping.
In 1892, Sir Jamshedji Tata started a steamer service between India, China and Japan and the British owned competitors slashed their freight rates from nineteen rupees a ton to two rupees in response! Who bore the balance is anyone’s guess! The British Empire never banned any Indian wanting to start his own shipping company, but they put hurdles galore in their way – whether it was getting passengers, cargo or getting paperwork cleared. And so, by and by, between the years 1891 and 1919 over a hundred Indian companies had tried to float their own ship on the high seas and failed or were rather forced to fail in the venture.
All that was to change in April 1919. A chance meeting with a British businessman had alerted Walchand Hirachand Doshi to the ship SS Loyalty, which was then at Bombay Docks. It had begun life as the RMS Empress of India in 1891, before being sold to the Maharaja Madho Rao Scindia of Gwalior in 1914. He renamed it SS Loyalty and refitted it into a military hospital ship, keeping in view the war. Now it was 1919, and Scindia agreed to sell the ship for twenty five lakh rupees. It was a good size vessel, at around hundred and fifty meters with a nice white hull. But where was the money going to come from?
Walchand, at the time around 28-years-old, first went to Narottam Morarji followed by visits to Sir Sawaldas and Kilachand Devchand; influential names in Bombay’s cotton mill industry and the business fraternity. With the money part stitched up, things moved quickly and in March 1919 a new shipping company was born – The Scindia Steam Navigation Company. Interestingly, buying their first vessel from the Scindia of Gwalior is the only link between the two!
But his problems had just begun. It was after all still a hospital ship and Walchand decided to refit it into a passenger cum cargo ship after reaching England, where the cost at one lakh rupees was one tenth the cost in India! So, April 5, 1919 finally dawned and among others Mahatma Gandhi blessed the new journey as did Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir.
Thus began the first cross ocean journey of the first Indian owned merchant ship flying an Indian banner. It sped across the Arabian Sea and through the Suez Canal made its way into Europe. On the twenty third or twenty fourth of the month, it docked at the French port of Marseilles. But when the ship entered England, the smooth sailing ended; no one ready to handle the ship. The reason was simple – no Englishman wanted to upset the British Indian Steamship Company and its boss – James McKay. This person was at the time the tenth richest in England and called the ‘Napoleon of shipping’ in industry circle.
Walchand Hirachand was up against him – a young businessman who had left Indian shores for the first time! But he kept at it, and soon came across a Kennedy, who did not have such high regard for McKay. At last, the repairs could be carried out – but the prices had ballooned to over five lakhs! Walchand and Morarji dipped into the company’s savings and literally scraped the bottom of the barrel to get the ship refitted. Then there was a new problem. BI let out the news that anyone doing business with Walchand would be ignored by the company. This did the trick. Walchand found it next to impossible to fill the refitted ship with passengers or cargo. Finally, Walchand & Morarji managed to convince passengers through their own personal efforts. They also purchased cement and pig iron out of their own money to have something in the cargo holds. Thus, in the face of threats, indifference and bad luck, the SS Loyalty had finished her repairs and prepared to sail back to Bombay at the end of 1919, completing a historic first trip. During his time in England, he also brought in six new ships from the Palace Shipping Company and Indian shipping was on its way. As for SS Loyalty, she did a few more trips to Marseilles and Genoa. Rising coal prices made her expensive to run. Finally, she was scrapped and sold in 1923 for just rupees one lakh!
But the Scindia Steam Navigation Company continued, mostly in the coastal trade business and is still in existence.
