"تاريخ البحرية الهندية. (١٦١٣- ١٨٦٣)." [‎٥‎٦‎٤] (٦٢٢/٥٨٣)

564
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAYY.
Mohamra; finally, he had gained the special approbation of Her
Majesty for his services rendered during the crisis of the
mutiny in Western India, when he landed troops on the
Malabar coast during the height of the monsoon, an act unpre
cedented in Indian annals. But, after having held a command
for many years, and received the thanks of the Governments of
the three Presidencies, Lieutenant Sweny found himself
consigned to the career of a civilian with no such cheap, if
gracious, acknowledgment of his long and faithful services to
the State, as would have been evidenced by the bestowal of the
rank of Commander. #
Among the senior officers, the commanders of thirty years
service and under, were aggrieved on the more substantial
score of their pecuniary prospects, for just as they were
qualified by rank and length of service for the few staff appoint
ments to which they were eligible,—Commodore in the Persian
Gulf, Senior Officer at Aden, Assistant Superintendent, Captain
of the flagship, Indian Navy Storekeeper, Master Attendant and
Conservator of the port,—they found themselves placed on the
retired list nolens volens, and condemned to accept a pension of
<£450 and <£400. These officers, as also some of the Senior
Lieutenants who had twenty-three years' service, and were retired
on pensions of <£300 a year, were all in the prime of life, most of
them had families to support, and were in the receipt of at least
700 rupees a month (=£840 a year), the command allowance
of a steam-frigate. Commanders Foulerton, Adams, and Chitty,t
were promised by Sir Charles Wood, the command of three
troopships between Bombay and Suez, but the Government
nominated to the command of all five troopships, officers of the
Eoyal Navy, on the plea that they could not maintain discipline,
as the Indian Navy being abolished, their Articles of War had
ceased to have force. The services of Commander Chitty,
# We would have it understood that in instancing the case of Lieutenant
Swenj, we have not done so at the suggestion of any one, least of all, of that
gallant officer, whom we have never seen, and from whom we have never heard
on the subject. We have only selected his case as typical of the consideration
which the officers of the Service received at the hands of Government, who,
having no further need of their services, dismissed them without regard to the
claims of justice. Lieutenants Barker, Duval, Clarkson, Hunter, and others,
were equally hardly treared.
f Commander Chitty, after his services in the ' Berenice ' during the Mutiny,
and in the ' Victoria' at the capture of Beyt and bombardment of Dwarka, was
employed in 1859, in command of the c Zenobia,' in deep-sea sounding in the Bay
of Bengal, and selecting a line for a submarine telegraph cable, on the coast of
Tenasserim, for which he received the thanks of the Supreme Government.
After the China War, in which he gained the commendation of Sir James Hope,
Commander Chitty was again employed, in 1861, sounding and selecting a line
for a submarine cable between Kurrachee and the head of the Persian Gulf to
Bussorah. In the following year he conveyed the Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha
from port to port in the Red Sea, in the 4 Victoria,' and finally, was again em
ployed on special service sounding for a line of telegraph on the Mekran coast,
for which he received the thanks of the Bombay Government. In 1865 Com-