rising by seniority to surgeons, if their abilities and conduct were in all respects satisfactory. The appointment of pursers was left to the commander, subject to the approval of the Committee of Shipping. When vacancies of any kind amongst the superior grades of officers occurred abroad, they were filled up temporarily by the Indian government, the Select Committee at Canton, or by the commander of the ship in which they occurred. But the command of a ship was not allowed to be given to an officer who was not competent, by the rules of the service, for the charge, unless the vacancy could not be otherwise filled, in accordance with these rules, at the place where the vacancy happened.[1]
Pay and perquisites. In the Appendix, No. 12, will be found the scale of wages paid in money to the officers and crew of a ship of eight hundred tons in the service of the Company, towards the close of the last and during the early part of this century; but 10l. per month to the commander, and 5l. per month to the chief mate, very imperfectly represent their remuneration. So many were their privileges, and so numerous their perquisites, that during five India or China voyages a captain of one of the Company's ships ought to have realised sufficient capital to be independent for the remainder of his life. Under the head of "Indulgences," the Court of Directors, "desiring to give all due and fitting encouragement to the commanders and officers of ships employed in their service,"[2] allowed them to participate in the Company's exclusive trade by granting to them a certain amount of tonnage space
