Fonds JED - Papers of John Edye

John Edye originally wrote this paper at some point prior to 1829 when he was still working in Trincomali. It only came to the Royal Asiatic Society's attention through the intervention of Major-General Sir John Malcolm. Malcolm relates his chance meeting with Edye on visit to Chatham Dockyard in an introductory letter attached to the original manuscript, in which he requests that the Society consider publishing the paper in their 'Transactions'.

The paper saw its reading commence at the Society's General Meeting on 18th May 1833 and conclude on 1st June 1833, and the decision was made by 15th June 1833 to print both the paper and Malcolm's attached letter in the 1834 edition of the Transactions of the Society.

Paper originally titled "Description of the various classes of vessels constructed and employed by the natives of the coasts of Coromandel, Malabar and the island of Ceylon, for their coasting navigation". John Edye catalogues, classifies and provides short descriptions (with original drafts) of the main river and ocean-going vessels used in Southern India in 1829. The vessels covered range from fishing canoes to ocean-going Dhows and Baggalahs, and provide a comprehensive overview.

Open. Please contact the archivist. Details can be found here : https://royalasiaticarchives.org/. The archive is open on Tuesdays and Fridays 10-5, and Thursdays 2-5. Access is to any researcher without appointment but it will help if an appointment is made via phone or email. Please bring photo ID.

In addition to the official publishing of the paper as Article 1 in the 1834 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (p. 1-15). There are references to the initial reading of the paper in the 1833 Minutes of General Meeting (p. 80 + 83), the 1833 Register of Communications (p. 87) as well as the 1833 Minutes of Council (p. 23).

The paper is also referred to later on in the 1834 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (p. 161) by Alexander Johnston, Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence, during its record of the Society's anniversary meeting on 10 May 1834. Johnston refers to the paper in the context of introducing steam-navigation between Britain and India, and he also states that Edye is preparing two further papers for the Society, which seemed to have been later merged into one paper covering both the ports and natural products available in Southern India for naval purposes. This second paper was published as Article 17 in the 1835 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (p. 324-377).

Edye was made a member of the Society in same year, as recorded in the 1835 List of Members (p. lxviii) and retired from the Society in 1843, as recorded in the 1843 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (p. ii).