Editorial Correspondence: Explanation: Post Officers of the P. & O.: To the Editor of the Hampshire Advertiser: ln your Saturday’s paper of the 19th inst, while noticing the funeral of the late Mrs. Rebecca Lewis, you refer to her late husband, Captain Samuel Lewis (who died forty years ago) as the commander of the S.S. Hindostan on her maiden trip to India, to open up the new Indian and Oriental route. You are misinformed in regard to the late Captain Samuel Lewis and his alleged connection with the S.S. Hindostan’s “maiden trip” to India in the year 1842. I joined the ship as purser, the beginning of the year 1842, while she was fitting out at Liverpool and she was commanded by Captain Robert Moresby of the then Indian Navy (of Persian Gulf and Red Sea survey celebrity), and brother of Admiral Moresby, R. N., then commanding in the East Indian Station. Captain Engledue, a director of the P. and O. Co., who died about two years since, left this port of Southampton in the S.S. Hindostan, on 24th September 1842 as the then representative of the P. and O. Co. and was the real pioneer of the overland mail route, which commenced in January 1843, and in which opening I participated. Captain Samuel Lewis at the date named, commanded the S.S. Braganza, of 638 tons, then the largest P. and O. Co.’s ship on the Peninsular line, while the new ship, the Hindostan, was 2017 tons, and considered to be the largest and finest ship afloat. The sister ship of the Hindostan was the Bentinck, and followed her to India in 1843. She was commanded by Captain Adam Kellock, who subsequently commanded the Himalaya (built in 1852-3) before she was sold to Her Majesty’s Government as a transport or troop ship: Her Majesty did not visit the Hindostan before she went to India in 1842; but she did visit one of the P. and O. ships in the Southampton Water some time later, and it is probable that, as Captain Samuel Lewis was a popular officer, he might have temporarily commanded the ship which Her Majesty the Queen visited. I was in India at the time, and do not remember the date when this memorable event occurred, although it was an honour which few of the officers, then in the service of the P. and O. Company (if there be any still alive) can look back to without a feeling of pride in the great P. and O. service to which they have or had the honour to belong. Yours faithfully, H. J. PINSENT, Late supt. purser P. and O. Co. at Southampton for twenty-three years: Portswood, Southampton, 21st April 1890.
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive
Referenced
GRO0420 India: Henry John Pinsent: 1812 – 1894