'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎567] (586/622)

HISTORY OP THE INDIAN NAVY.
567
ttcre.
J. or
one of them enjoys a good Service pension, while as to honorary
rewards, which, too often, are the only acknowledgments soldiers
and sailors receive for life-long meritorious services, only four
officers, of whom but two survive, have been recipients of the
lowest class of the Bath, while not one has been deemed worthy
to receive the Order of the Star of India, instituted in 1861,
two years before the abolition of the Service. Contrast this
treatment with that accorded to the other Services of the
Crown, who, after a war, however brief and uneventful, are re
warded with a free distribution of decorations and promotions,
either substantive or brevet. Why was this slur cast upon old
and meritorious officers when the " Exalted Order of the Star of
India" was conferred upon all branches of the Public Service,
soldiers and civilians, as well as Native Princes, some of whom,
during the dark and troublous days of the Mutiny, gave only a
half-hearted support to the u Circar," w T hich would have been
changed into active hostility had a great reverse happened to
our arms, or had the siege of Delhi been raised, or the Lucknow
garrison left to their fate by Havelock's gallant band? But,
though we find some 6i veiled traitors " receiving the ribbon of
the Star of India, the gallant seamen who, afloat and ashore,
had faithfully served their Honourable and Royal masters, w T ere
treated with marked neglect, which, though deeply felt by
the Service, reflects discredit only upon the dispensers of these
honours. There was, of course, no interest felt in their fate at
the Admiralty; and, as to 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. , they had no friends
in office there, and few would stoop to memorialize. It is
even doubtful whether the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. , had they been in
existence, or retained a voice in the distribution of honours,
w-ould have pleaded in behalf of a Service which existed before
the Company had a soldier in their pay, or the British standing
Army had an existence. But the officers of the Indian Navy, being
no longer required for the service of the State, were cast aside
as a rusty tool, and relegated to obscurity, so far as the denial of
all honorary distinctions render men nobodies in this country,
while the wanton and wholesale destruction of the records of
the Service appeared to denote a deliberate intention to erase
the very memory of the Indian Navy.
But it is not too late even yet to do an act of justice, so far
alongside of whom I was standing, and the windage knocked his hat off and laid
him senseless on the deck. At length two 32-pound shells struck the vessel
simultaneously on the forepart, bursting in among the cotton and setting lire to
the vessel, which I found impossible to get under, and m a few minutes we were
in a blaze from stem to stern. I then ordered the men to enter the boats, which
they did in a most orderly manner, as if nothing had occurred; and we rowed to
the nearest vessel, the ' Quaker City,' and gave ourselves up as prisoners. We
were taken to Fort Beaufort, North Carolina, and my men were afterwards sent
to Philadelphia, and I to New York and Boston. I cannot complain as prisoners
that we were badly treated ; biscuit and water was our diet, and meat once a
week. Soon after the w T ar came to a close, and I was liberated.
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