Jean Sutton’s book is an analysis of the maritime careers of several generations of a family of East India Company ship captains and owners, the Larkins family, who rose to become important shop owners as well as seafarers for the Company. It is very much a tale of rise and fall. The first part of the book traces the rise of the family in prosperity and social respectability during the expansionist years of the later eighteenth century, when the Company’s monopoly assured high profits for Company captains, who enjoyed exclusive rights to trade on their own account (the “Privilege” trade) and, in the case of those who part owned their ships, privileged rights to provide shipping for the Company. The latter chapters then chart its decline in fortunes, as the commercial misfortunes of the Company, and the stripping away of its monopolies, opened shipowners and captains to fierce competition.

The great strength of the book is its attempt to convey on a human scale what it meant to work for the Company as a mariner during this period. Sutton uses a range of company records and other sources to map the voyages of successive generations of the family. There are vivid descriptions of the often uncertain and perilous nature of voyages from Britain to India, Southeast Asia, and China. This enables her to capture the anxieties and tensions that existed between ship captains and their crews and captains and Company administrators and, in the case of the China trade, the cultural misunderstandings and sheer mutual incomprehension that characterized relations with the Chinese authorities in Canton. Sutton sets the unfolding scene of global European conflicts very well, culminating in the Napoleonic Wars of 1793–1815. The terrors, tactics, and strategies of maritime warfare during this period are aspects that Sutton understands very well and conveys with imagination and flair. As a result, she is also able to provide a clear sense of change in the years after British victory in 1815, when British global domination was translated into greater physical security, although, because of the commercial changes of the period, this did not mean great financial stability. It is at this human level that the book works very well indeed.

But the book would have been strengthened considerably by more exploration of certain aspects of activities of Company sea captains. Sutton eloquently describes how major ports such as Bombay, Penang, and Calcutta changed during this period yet captures relatively little of the commercial and social intercourse that must have taken place between Company captains and some of the more prosperous private firms in these major ports. This aspect is not absent—relations between the Larkins family and major traders like David Scott are mentioned, although more might have been said about commercial dealings with that eminent Bombay merchant. By contrast, there is very little on the family’s relations with Calcutta merchants, notwithstanding the fact that at least one member of the family rose to a position of considerable influence under the Governor-Generalship of Warren Hastings. Perusing the bibliography, there are few or no references to the private papers of eminent agency house men such as Fairlie and Palmer, and I was left wondering whether there might be additional information about the Larkins family in them, which might provide a clearer picture of their commercial interests. From the secondary material cited, it does appear that only limited attention was given to the non-Company merchants and their relationships with East India Company captains, yet these were clearly very important for both parties. Also, as with so many studies of the East India Company, Sutton chooses to end her study with the termination of the Company’s commercial activities. This was a pity, as it would have been fascinating to take the story of the Larkins on by a decade or two, to see how they adapted (or otherwise) to the turbulent commercial world of Asia of the 1830s and 1840s. This would have provided important insights into a period of major personal and commercial adjustments and adaptation and would have offered much on the personal experiences wrought by the coming of free trade. While the book is extremely engaging and well written, there is a tendency to lapse into the often puzzling complexities of the maritime language of the time, and while a useful glossary was provided, the untutored eye may find certain passages a little heavy going.

Nonetheless, this is a fine piece of work, which captures the day-to-day realities of maritime life during this period lucidly, imaginatively, and sometimes movingly. For those who want or need a sense of what it was like to work at sea for the Company during this period, this will quickly become the leader in the field and required reading. I certainly enjoyed it very much.