The Indiaman 'Royal George' in Three Positions in the Downs, 1779. Artist Francis Holman

[Copyright: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich]

In the British Library India Office Collection there are four Log Books¹ for the East India Ship 'Cruttenden' covering the period 1762 to 1772. The 'Cruttenden' was of 499 tons and the husband was John Durand Esq. (The 'Royal George', above, was 758 tons.)

The 'Cruttenden' was named after Edward Holden Cruttenden, a career employee of the East India Company and a 'principal owner'.

EHC was appointed as a Writer, on a salary  of £5 per annum, in the Company service in December 1736 and arrived in India on 26th May 1737. He made his way up through the ranks of Factor (£15 per annum), Junior Merchant (£30 per annum), Senior Merchant (£40 per annum) and by 1749 was a member of the 12 man Council. Still only aged 31, in 1753, he reached the position of Second of Council (still on £40 per annum). He did not achieve the top position of President and Governor (salary £200 per annum), being dismissed in 1755 for obtaining a contract to supply marine stores by fraudulent means. He was, however, restored after the siege of Calcutta in 1757. EHC remained in Bengal as a 'free merchant' for some years, but returned to London by February 1760, having amassed, in Bengal alone, an un-remitted fortune of £50,000.

The years 1765-1768 & 1770-71 saw EHC as a Director of the East India Company. He died on 19th June 1771.

¹ L/MAR/A/531/A-H & 533D

  EH's career can be found in L/F/10/1, India Office Library

The Cruttenden gets a mention in:

An Inquiry into the Nature And Causes of the Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith, 1776.

Book Five - Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth.
CHAPTER I - Of the Expenses of the Sovereign or Commonwealth
PART 3 - Of the Expense of Public Works and Public Institutions
ARTICLE 1 - Of the Public Works and Institutions for facilitating the Commerce of the Society 

" ... and by an account brought by the Cruttenden East Indiaman in 1768, ... "


Exploits of the Cruttenden even reached the 'American' Press:

The Connecticut Courant, Monday, October 29, 1764 (Number 00.)

"By the Cruttenden East-Indiaman, Captain Bowler, from Bengal we learn, that Manila is not yet delivered up to the Spaniards, owing to the ship having lost her passage that was dispatched there."