Captain Hobbs

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tagsperson, british, sea-captain, 1786
aliasescaptain Hobbs, Hobbs

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Captain Hobbs was a British sea-captain entrusted by the Sultan of Acheh (“sultan Munson”) with the carrying of a reply letter to Warren Hastings, the Governor-General of Bengal, in 1786. He was murdered at Tringano and died of his wounds before he could deliver the despatch. He is mentioned in P. H. van der Kemp (1900), in Appendix 1, which reproduces the Achehnese sovereign’s letter of 7 November 1786 to the Governor-General at Calcutta.

The fatal voyage

The Sultan’s letter narrates the circumstances: “I wrote an answer by captain Hobbs and desirous of lasting friendship. But fate was ordered to captain Hobbs that when he had sailed two days from Tringano a classy from Java wounded him while he was asleep. Captain Hobbs then returned to Tringano and died after 5 of 6 days, and my letters were delayed, because I did not meet with any one that I could entrust with my letters for you which could maintain our friendship.”

Van der Kemp adds a footnote: “Classy” was a matroos (sailor), as may be confirmed from Hobson-Jobson’s Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial words etc. (1886). The Sultan’s letter thus records an act of unprovoked violence by a Javanese sailor against the sleeping British captain two days out of Tringano — a Malay state on the east coast of the peninsula. Hobbs’s death delayed the dispatch of the Achehnese reply and compelled the Sultan to find other channels.

The handling of Hobbs’s effects

The Sultan’s letter also relates that Mr. John Bird was “desirous of sailing with the effects of the deceased.” The Sultan opposed this, since Captain Hobbs had left no such orders with him; but captain Canning and Mr. Phillips came to the Sultan and, after consultation, unanimously desired him to deliver the effects to John Bird and give him his discharge to take them to Bengal. The goods, however, were destined for Java rather than Bengal; John Bird sold them and took in exchange goods for Bengal from the Sultan, occasioning a loss of 3891 Koors. The Sultan reported the circumstance to Hastings as evidence of his desire to maintain friendship.

Historical context

The Hobbs episode is the only contemporary evidence of a British diplomatic contact with Acheh between the foundation of Penang in 1786 and the mission of Captain Canning in 1814. Van der Kemp prints it as the first of his twelve appendices because the letter it accompanies — the Sultan of Acheh’s letter to Warren Hastings — furnishes the earliest documentary expression of an Achehnese desire for “lasting friendship with the English,” a phrase that would recur, in altered diplomatic language, in the Treaty of Pedir of 1819.

See Also

Source

Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159–239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.

Captain Hobbs was a British sea-captain entrusted by the Sultan of Acheh (“sultan Munson”) with the carrying of a reply letter to Warren Hastings, the Governor-General of Bengal, in 1786. He was murdered at Tringano and died of his wounds before he could deliver the despatch. He is mentioned in P. H. van der Kemp (1900), in Appendix 1, which reproduces the Achehnese sovereign’s letter of 7 November 1786 to the Governor-General at Calcutta.

The fatal voyage

The Sultan’s letter narrates the circumstances: “I wrote an answer by captain Hobbs and desirous of lasting friendship. But fate was ordered to captain Hobbs that when he had sailed two days from Tringano a classy from Java wounded him while he was asleep. Captain Hobbs then returned to Tringano and died after 5 of 6 days, and my letters were delayed, because I did not meet with any one that I could entrust with my letters for you which could maintain our friendship.”

Van der Kemp adds a footnote: “Classy” was a matroos (sailor), as may be confirmed from Hobson-Jobson’s Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial words etc. (1886). The Sultan’s letter thus records an act of unprovoked violence by a Javanese sailor against the sleeping British captain two days out of Tringano — a Malay state on the east coast of the peninsula. Hobbs’s death delayed the dispatch of the Achehnese reply and compelled the Sultan to find other channels.

The handling of Hobbs’s effects

The Sultan’s letter also relates that Mr. John Bird was “desirous of sailing with the effects of the deceased.” The Sultan opposed this, since Captain Hobbs had left no such orders with him; but captain Canning and Mr. Phillips came to the Sultan and, after consultation, unanimously desired him to deliver the effects to John Bird and give him his discharge to take them to Bengal. The goods, however, were destined for Java rather than Bengal; John Bird sold them and took in exchange goods for Bengal from the Sultan, occasioning a loss of 3891 Koors. The Sultan reported the circumstance to Hastings as evidence of his desire to maintain friendship.

Historical context

The Hobbs episode is the only contemporary evidence of a British diplomatic contact with Acheh between the foundation of Penang in 1786 and the mission of Captain Canning in 1814. Van der Kemp prints it as the first of his twelve appendices because the letter it accompanies — the Sultan of Acheh’s letter to Warren Hastings — furnishes the earliest documentary expression of an Achehnese desire for “lasting friendship with the English,” a phrase that would recur, in altered diplomatic language, in the Treaty of Pedir of 1819.

See Also

Source

Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159–239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.

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