Lascars in the port of London

The unceasing flow of commercial shipping into the port of London during the nineteenth century naturally brought with it multitudes of visitors from different seafaring nations. Britain’s ownership of a large percentage of the world’s shipping tonnage meant that many of them had found employment on British-registered vessels.

Seafarers from the Indian subcontinent and surrounding regions were traditionally referred to as lascars. The term was often broadly applied, including seafarers who originated from more distant parts of Asia, such as the Malay peninsula and China.

When they needed treatment for sickness or injury during their stay in London, all merchant seafarers, regardless of race or nationality, fell under the care of the Seamen’s Hospital Society. A numerical breakdown of the different nationalities recorded in its admission registers appeared in annual reports made by the governors. An early example from March 1826 stated that up to the end of the previous year, there had been 12 patients from the East Indian region out of a total of 4,679 admissions on board the Grampus hospital ship since its foundation.

While the Seamen’s Hospital Society publicised numbers of lascars admitted to the hospital to demonstrate the cosmopolitan and deserving character of the charity, British merchant shipping regulations and employment contacts enforced a system of discrimination.

Many lascars originated from parts of the British Empire and, through their work afloat, they contributed towards its prosperity. However, various shipping acts set them apart from the main body of British seafarers and their contracts were administered under separate Asiatic agreements. Above all, lascars represented a cheap method of filling gaps in crew numbers, as they were paid a fraction of the wages of their European counterparts. British shipowners were required by law to return lascars to their countries of origin, but they often neglected their responsibilities once ships had arrived in port.

The long periods lascars spent in inadequate living conditions, together with improper diet, accounted for their mortality rates from scurvy and other diseases being higher than those of other seafarers.

Lack of warm clothing and inexperience of harsh winter weather in the northern latitudes meant that they were more likely to suffer from pneumonia, frostbite and gangrene. Some of these issues were recognised in an essay on medical conditions commonly found among lascars on East India Company ships, written by the surgeon William Hunter in 1804.

During the 1840s, press reports drew attention to an upsurge in numbers of lascars appearing destitute in London.

Often there were delays and disputes arising out of unpaid wages, or the inadequate accommodation provided for them in the port. Some deserted to escape from mistreatment and many wandered the streets, in danger of being cheated out of their possessions. This situation was partly addressed by legislation which obliged the East India Company (and from 1858 the India Office) to provide for and repatriate all seafarers from territories under its administrative control. It also required contracts relating to voyages from India to contain terms which bound lascars to later employment on ships returning to their homeland.

On the local front, lascars were given charitable support by various sailors’ homes and missionary societies.

Green’s Sailors’ Home in East India Dock Road, Poplar, established by the shipowner and philanthropist George Green (1767–1849), was in operation between 1841 and 1873. Lascars formed a significant percentage of the crews on ships owned by the partnership of Green and Wigram. Meanwhile, an appeal for the funding of a home for non-white seafarers led to the opening of the Strangers’ Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders in West India Dock Road, Limehouse, in 1857.

In the Dreadnought registers we can find a lascar named Toban Olla, recently employed as a greaser on the steamer Port Chalmers (1891), admitted in a destitute condition on 2 July 1894. A note records that he was sent to the Strangers’ Home. The establishment provided board and lodging for non-white seafarers at affordable rates and operated a shipping office to find them employment. It was also a centre for spreading the Christian gospel among seafarers. Contemporary accounts of such missionary work often use pejorative terms to describe the behaviour and beliefs of lascars and other seafarers from non-Christian cultures.