Action off Pipli River

Action off Pipli River
Part of the Dano-Mughal War

A drawing of a budgerow, by Frans Balthazar Solvyns in 1799
Date21 January 1644
Location
Mouth of the Pipli River, Mughal Empire (present-day Subarnarekha River, India)
21°33′18″N 87°23′31″E / 21.55500°N 87.39194°E / 21.55500; 87.39194
Result Danish victory
Belligerents
Danish India
Commanders and leaders
Danish India Willem Leyel Abdul Gany (POW)
Units involved
Danish India Valby Unknown
Strength
1 ship
Unknown no. of men		 1 ship
Unknown no. of men
Casualties and losses
Unknown 1 ship
19 slaves captured

The action off Pipli River took place on 21 January 1644 at the mouth of the Pipli River in Bengal between a Danish yacht and a Bengali ship.

After the governor of the Danish colony of Tranquebar, Willem Leyel, resumed the Dano-Mughal War by capturing a Bengali skude (single-decked vessel) off Narsapur, another expedition to Bengal was initiated. At the mouth of the Pipli River, a Danish yacht captured a small ship, which was taken to Emeldy in Golconda, where it was sold.

Background

In 1616, the Danish East India Company was founded, and after a successful expedition to India in 1620, it established the colony of Tranquebar. Afterwards, the governor of Tranquebar, Roland Crappé, established multiple factories all over the East Indies, including Bengal, and Danish ships were regularly sent to India.

In late 1642, following continued disputes between Danish India and the Mughal Empire, the governor of Tranquebar, Bernt Pessart, declared war on the latter.

Prelude

In 1643, Pessart was ousted while he and his successor, Willem Leyel, overwintered in Emeldy in Golconda. Here, the frigate Christianshavn and the yacht Valby were repaired, and when Valby was ready to sail, it and Christianshavn, was sent to Bengal to resume the war. During their expedition, they managed to capture a skude (single-decked vessel) off Narsapur in December 1643.

Action

In January 1644, a new expedition was initiated by Valby, under which a small Bengali ship was captured at the mouth of the Pipli River on 21 January.

The ship was coming down from Pipli city, weighed 40 lasts and had a large valuable cargo consisting of ambergris, 21 packages of pepper, Bengali textiles, and Chinese silk. The Nakhuda of the ship, Abdul Gany, 6 Mughal merchants, and the crew were subsequently imprisoned and taken to Fort Dansborg. Meanwhile, their slaves, 19 in total, were baptised and sold, the majority of whom were children. The Danes carefully recorded a list of all of the slaves by their baptismal name:

Aftermath

Concurrent with Valby's expedition, Christianshavn had captured Den Lille Elefant among other ships in February, and after returning to Emeldy with the ship from the Pipli River, where the ship and most of its cargo were sold, the Danish ships left for Tranquebar. Danish colonial historian Kay Larsen is inconsistent about the date of Danes' departure, placing it in both early January and February 1644. As such, in the account placing it in early January, the Bengali ship is captured while the Danes scouted for Bengali vessels, as they were returning to Tranquebar. Nevertheless, the monsoon weather halted the Danes' voyage, and the two Danish vessels only returned to Tranquebar on 11 June 1644.

See also

Notes and citations

Notes

  1. ↑ Yachts usually had a crew of 40 men, with an additional 15 to 20 armed men.
  2. ↑ Danish author Asta Bredsdorff puts this number at 34.

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Larsen 1935, p. 73.
  2. ↑ Bredsdorff 1999, pp. 11, 187.
  3. 1 2 3 Bredsdorff 1999, p. 11.
  4. ↑ Bredsdorff 1999, p. 13.
  5. ↑ Bredsdorff 1999, p. 88.
  6. ↑ Bredsdorff 1999, p. 95.
  7. ↑ Bredsdorff 1999, p. 94.
  8. ↑ Larsen 1907b, p. 32.
  9. ↑ Bredsdorff 1999, p. 68.
  10. 1 2 Bredsdorff 1999, pp. 94, 97.
  11. ↑ Bredsdorff 1999, pp. 88–89, 95, 131, 135.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Bredsdorff 1999, p. 99.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Wellen 2015, p. 451.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Larsen 1907b, p. 33.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Larsen 1907a, p. 436.
  16. ↑ Larsen 1935, p. 74.
  17. 1 2 Bredsdorff 1999, p. 100.
  18. ↑ Bredsdorff 1999, p. 135.

References

  • Bredsdorff, Asta (1 January 1999). Willem Leyels liv og farefulde rejse til Indien [The Trials and Travels of Willem Leyel] (PDF). Søhistoriske Skifter. Vol. 21. Copenhagen, Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 87-7289-498-9. ISSN 0107-6647.
  • Larsen, Kay (September 1907a). Munch, Peter Rochegune (ed.). "Danske Kapertogter i den bengalske Havbugt" [Danish Privateer Voyages in the Bay of Bengal]. Det ny Aarhunderede. 4. Copenhagen, Denmark: Harvard Library – via Internet Archive.
  • Larsen, Kay (1907b). De dansk-ostindiske koloniers historie – Trankebar [History of the Danish East Indian Colonies – Tranquebar] (in Danish). Vol. 1. Copenhagen, Denmark: Centralforlaget – via Danskernes Historie Online.
  • Larsen, Kay (1935). Ipsen, Poul (ed.). "En lille dansk Søkrig i Indien" [A Little Danish Naval War] (PDF). Tidsskrift for Søvæsen. 106. Copenhagen, Denmark: Søe-Lieutenant-Selskabet – via Marinehistorisk Selskab.
  • Wellen, Kathryn (2015). "The Danish East India Company's War against the Mughal Empire, 1642-1698" (PDF). Journal of Early Modern History. 19 (5). Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Publishers: 439–461. doi:10.1163/15700658-12342470. eISSN 1568-5209. ISSN 0022-4995.