SHIPPING RELIC

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4220, 6 December 1939, Page 10

SHIPPING RELIC

THE OLDEST EAST INDIAMAN. A strange old relic of the once glorious “John Company was until recently still afloat in the blue waters of the Mediterranean off Gibraltar. At the beginning of August she was towed to Genoa to be broken up. Mr Boyd Cable gives some interesting particulars of the old East Indiaman, the Java, built in Calcutta in 1813. Although intended for peaceful trading, the Indiamen were heavily armed so as to be able to hold their own against the privateers, and the Java had 30 guns. Romantic circumstances led to the building- and naming of the Java. Java another Indiaman was lying off Java, a party of passengers went ashore for a picnic. They were attacked by natives and a young girl was carried off. An officer of the ship set off in pursuit with an armed guard and eventually he caught up with the natives and rescued the captive. Out of gratitude to the officer, the girl’s father built and equipped him a ship which was named Java. After several years on the Indian run, the Java was used to transport troops to Australia, and finally came to rest as a coal hulk off Gibraltar. Although she was damaged off the Spaniish coast, and lost her figurehead in a collision, the timbers of tha old Indiaman were sound until th 3 end,'and although battered in appearance, she remained the last living link With the history of India and the old John Company.