'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎540] (559/622)

540
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
Navy was given precedence immediately after the Commanders-
in-chief at Madras and Bombay, whose place was next to the
Commander-in-chief of H.M.'s Naval Forces in China and the
East.
The question of the position of the Indian Navy,* which,
since the accession to power of Lord William Bentinck, had
been one of constant recurrence before the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. ,
once again 64 came up for consideration," and when, in con
sequence of the serious annual deficits of Indian finance, large
reductions were made in the Civil and Military services, it
became a question whether the Indian Navy should be abolished
or reduced, for an amalgamation with the Royal Navy was
opposed by the Admiralty, and, indeed, was impracticable. The
Government of India, true to the policy enunciated by Lord
William Bentinck and Sir Charles Metcalfe, acting on the re
commendation of Mr. Laing's Finance Commission, wrote a
despatch recommending a very large reduction in the Indian
Navy; but, though a decision was of urgent necessity, not only
on economical grounds, but also as regarded efficiency, as the
Service, if left with its obsolete types of paddle steam-frigates
and sailing sloops, would be utterly unfitted to cope with the
navies of Europe, the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. hesitated to pronounce its
doom, doubtless being awake to the gravity of a step by which
a body of highly trained officers would be dispersed beyond
power of recall. Thus we find that, on the 31st of May, 1861,
Sir Charles Wood, in reply to a question from Sir George
Bowyer, stated that no decision had yet been arrived at, but
that the despatch of the Supreme Government was " under con
sideration;" and a question put in the Upper House on the
21st of June, by Lord Ellenborough, met with a similar reply
from the Duke of Somerset, then First Lord of the Admiralty.
The first step towards the disintegration of the Service was
taken in April, 1861, when Government ordered the reduction
of the detachments of Marines serving on board the ships of
the Indian Navy, and also of the Marine Battalion itself, which
for nearly a century, had been associated with the Service.
A letter, dated Mahableshwur, the 2nd of April, 1861, from
the Adjutant-General of the Army, was received at the
^ The Marine Department of Bengal whicli had been successively under the
authority of two distinguished officers of the Indian Navy, Captains Rogers and
Rennie, was finally remodelled in 1861. By these changes, which were confirmed
by the Order of the Grovernor-General in Council, of the 12th of July, in conformity
with the resolution of May the 15th, published in the " Government Grazette,"
the office of Superintendent of Marine was abolished, and Captain Rennie
became the " Controller of Marine Affairs and Secretary to the Government of
India in the Marine Department." The dockyards and inland flotilla were trans
ferred to the Government of India, while the Master-Attendant's office, the Pilot
establishment, and all purely local establishments remained under the Govern
ment of Bengal, with which the head of those establishments was placed in
direct communication.