Voyage to India 1796-1797

In June 1796 a 17-year old Anglo-Irish youth, Jonathan Henry Lovett, was appointed a junior clerk with the British East India Company. With Britain at war with France, Lovett sailed from England to India aboard the East Indiaman Malabar. It took the ship seven months to reach Bombay, where Lovett disembarked in January 1797.

Lovett kept a journal during the voyage in which he recorded his observations of seabirds, fish, and marine life seen from the quarterdeck of the Malabar. During a stopover at the Cape of Good Hope he described its rugged mountains, exotic wildlife, its Dutch and native inhabitants, British military encampments, and ships coming and going.

Originally written in two volumes recently discovered in libraries 7,000 miles apart, the complete Jonathan Lovett journal comes together here for the first time in living memory. Excerpts from the Malabar's logbook and detailed maps add additional detail to this tale of travel by sea in the days of the East Indiamen.