Thomas Elwon

Thomas Elwon (* 1794 ; † June 17, 1835 in Bassadore on the island of Qeschm ) was a naval officer in the British-Indian Navy , who was known for his missions in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf .

Life

Start of the naval career

Elwon joined the Bombay Navy (from 1830 Indian Navy ) as a midshipman in 1810 , which at that time was still subordinate to the East India Company . However, he could not stand the hot climate and had to return to England for health reasons. After recovering, he came back in 1819.

In 1820 Elwon was involved in a punitive expedition against the Yemeni port city of Mokka : After British-Indian representatives were beaten up and insulted there in 1817 and the Imam's followers had only hesitantly or negatively responded to the British apology, an Indian naval unit under Captain Lumley ( Frigate Topaze ). Elwon, with the rank of Second Lieutenant , commanded the Thames mortar ship . On December 4th, the bombing of the city's fortifications began; the fighting dragged on until early January, when the Yemenis finally accepted the British demands.

In September 1821 he was promoted to First Lieutenant . In 1828 he was named as the commander of the 14-gun brig Antelope . From the beginning of 1829 he carried the rank of Commander .

Surveying the Red Sea

Port city on the Red Sea, drawing by Thomas Elwon

The ports of Hodeida , Loheia and El Cassar

Under the new superintendent (Commander in Chief) Sir Charles Malcolm , the British-Indian Navy devoted itself from 1828 to the extensive surveying and mapping of the Indian Ocean and its tributaries . At the beginning of 1829 plans were started to explore the Red Sea (so far rather insignificant for European seafaring) in order to make the emerging steamship trade between Suez and Bombay possible without danger. In the autumn of the same year, Elwon and Robert Moresby were commissioned to carry out an accurate survey of the sea. Elwon, the higher-ranking and thus in command of the two men, but less experienced in surveying, commanded the Benares , an old 14-gun ship that had been converted into a survey ship. Moresby commanded the brig Palinuro . The survey area was divided up: starting from the natural harbor Khor Shinab on the Sudanese coast, Elwon was to map the southern Red Sea from Jeddah to Bab al-Mandab , while Moresby was responsible for the part north of it. The two spent the next three years with their ships and crews for the most part in the Red Sea, only returning to India during the monsoon season . On her return voyage in April 1831, the Benares was so damaged by collisions with coral reefs that it was difficult to get back to Bombay. In addition, epidemics (especially smallpox ) broke out on board and several crew members died.

In January 1833, Elwon, who had recently become a captain , was surprisingly recalled to lead the Indian Navy's activities in the Persian Gulf (more precisely in the area of the Persian Gulf Residency ) as Commodore of the Persian Gulf . He therefore left the Red Sea with the Palinurus , while Moresby successfully completed the survey on his own with the Benares . Surveying was already considered a great pioneering achievement by contemporaries; today it is seen as the beginning of modern scientific exploration of the Red Sea.

Conflict in Bahrain

At the beginning of 1834 there was a conflict in Bahrain - similar to a decade and a half earlier in Mocha - between the local (trade) agent of the East India Company and some sons of the ruler Sheikh Abdallah ibn Ahmad Al Khalifa . The origin of the conflict was a dispute over money (the proceeds from the sale of dates), but there was also a xenophobic religious motivation, since the agent Khushal was a Hindu Indian. Although the ruler officially supported the agent's position, he did nothing to prevent his sons from having him repeatedly beaten up, stolen from or threatened with death. When David Blane , the responsible resident in Bushire , learned of this attack on a representative of the British Empire, he asked Sheikh Abdallah, as a sign of apology, to hand over a robe of honor and to punish the thugs. Since the sheikh reacted only evasively, however, Commodore Elwon was sent at the end of March with the sloops Ternate and Armherst to deliver a 24-hour ultimatum; if the Sheikh does not agree, military force (destruction of the Bahraini ships and blockade of the ports) should be used. Sheikh Abdallah finally agreed to the conditions and personally delivered the robe to Elwon as requested. The three beating followers of his sons were arrested shortly afterwards and flogged on April 5th on a small boat in front of the British.

About a year later, on June 17, 1835, Elwon, who had been in poor health from the beginning of his career due to the hot climate, died in the small naval base of Bassadore (Basaidu) (in the northwest of the island of Qeschm in the Strait of Hormuz ) at the age of only 40 years of illness.

Individual evidence

^ Mildred Archer, Patricia Kattenhorn: British drawings in the India Office Library , Volume 3, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1969, p. 140 ( Elwon, Thomas. (1793 / 4-1835). Bombay Marine. Midshipman 1810; Captain 1832. )
^ Charles Rathbone Low: The History of the Indian Navy 1613-1863 , Volume I, first published in 1877, reproduced in 1990 and 2012, Chapter IX., Section Operations at Mocha , pp. 299-309
↑ Alexander Way Mason, George Owen, George Henry Brown: The East India Register and Directory for 1828 ( India Office and Burma Office List ), Second Edition, JL Cox, London, p. 337 ( List of Officers and Volunteers belonging to the Hon . Company's Marine )
^ Charles Rathbone Low: The History of the Indian Navy 1613-1863 , Volume I, first published in 1877, reproduced in 1990 and 2012, Appendix A ( List of the Indian Navy in 1830: List of Officers ), p. 533
^ The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register , August 1833, p. 247 ( Bombay Marine Department: Promotions in the Indian Navy )
^ Charles Rathbone Low: The History of the Indian Navy 1613-1863 , Volume II, first published in 1877, reproduced in 1990 and 2012, Chapter II., Section Surveys of the Red Sea by Captain Elwon and Commander Moresby , pp. 69-72
↑ Alexis Wick: The Red Sea: In Search of Lost Space , University of California Press, 2016, pp. 136-139
↑ James Onley: The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj: Merchants, Rulers, and the British in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf , Oxford University Press, 2007, Chapter 13. Challenges to the Agents, 1834-97
^ Obituary in: The Gentleman's Magazine , Volume 159, London, January 1836, p. 102 ( Obituary ) and in: The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany , Volume 19, January 1836, p. 43 ( Bombay: Deaths )

personal data
SURNAME	Elwon, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Naval officer in the British-Indian Navy in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf
DATE OF BIRTH	1794
DATE OF DEATH	June 17, 1835
Place of death	Bassadors on the island of Qeschm

[1] Mildred Archer, Patricia Kattenhorn: British drawings in the India Office Library , Volume 3, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1969, p. 140 ( Elwon, Thomas. (1793 / 4-1835). Bombay Marine. Midshipman 1810; Captain 1832. )

[2] Charles Rathbone Low: The History of the Indian Navy 1613-1863 , Volume I, first published in 1877, reproduced in 1990 and 2012, Chapter IX., Section Operations at Mocha , pp. 299-309

[3] Alexander Way Mason, George Owen, George Henry Brown: The East India Register and Directory for 1828 ( India Office and Burma Office List ), Second Edition, JL Cox, London, p. 337 ( List of Officers and Volunteers belonging to the Hon . Company's Marine )

[4] Charles Rathbone Low: The History of the Indian Navy 1613-1863 , Volume I, first published in 1877, reproduced in 1990 and 2012, Appendix A ( List of the Indian Navy in 1830: List of Officers ), p. 533

[5] The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register , August 1833, p. 247 ( Bombay Marine Department: Promotions in the Indian Navy )

[6] Charles Rathbone Low: The History of the Indian Navy 1613-1863 , Volume II, first published in 1877, reproduced in 1990 and 2012, Chapter II., Section Surveys of the Red Sea by Captain Elwon and Commander Moresby , pp. 69-72

[7] Alexis Wick: The Red Sea: In Search of Lost Space , University of California Press, 2016, pp. 136-139

[8] James Onley: The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj: Merchants, Rulers, and the British in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf , Oxford University Press, 2007, Chapter 13. Challenges to the Agents, 1834-97

[9] Obituary in: The Gentleman's Magazine , Volume 159, London, January 1836, p. 102 ( Obituary ) and in: The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany , Volume 19, January 1836, p. 43 ( Bombay: Deaths )