Come you back to Mandalay,
Where the old Flotilla lay;
Can’t you ‘ear their paddles chunkin’ from Rangoon to Mandalay,
On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin’-fishes play,
An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ‘crost the Bay!
So begins the chorus to Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem Mandalay. It was first published in the Scots Observer in June 1890, shortly after Kipling’s return from India, an eastward voyage that had included a short stopover in Burma, then an administrative part of the Subcontinent. Interestingly, Kipling never visited Mandalay, which lies almost 450 miles inland from his port of call, Rangoon. But the writer’s understanding of the country is evident in his reference to the ‘old Flotilla… their paddles chunkin’ from Rangoon to Mandalay’, an understanding no doubt picked up through his everyday work as assistant editor of the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore. As Kipling understood, ‘the road to Mandalay’ was a riparian one serviced by paddle steamers belonging to the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company (IFC). And he knew too that the river and its Flotilla not only sustained the British Empire in Burma, it had played a pivotal role in its conquest of the region.
The Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) is one of the great river systems of South East Asia. At more than 2,000 kilometres, it meanders north to south almost the entire length of modern Myanmar, emptying into the Andaman Sea through an extensive Delta. The Irrawaddy has a number of tributaries, chief among being the Chidwin, which flows through the northwest. Despite the monsoonal climate, the Irrawaddy remains relatively shallow even during the wet season, its average depth being only about 10 metres. Its highest levels are in August, the lowest in February. The key towns along the Irrawaddy from north to south are Bhamo, Katha, Mandalay, Prome, Pego, and Rangoon.
The British East India Company had encroached on Burmese territory as early as 1753 when it established a settlement on Negrais Island at the mouth of the Bassein (Pathein) River, a western tributary of the Irrawaddy Delta. A subsequent treaty signed by King Alaungpaya granted the island to the British in perpetuity in return for military assistance against a rival kingdom in the eastern delta, which was being backed by a French naval force at the port of Syriam. In 1759, Alaungpaya promptly laid waste to the Negrais settlement, having defeated his rivals in the east without the promised assistance from the British, and having heard reports that a rogue British East Indiaman had earlier traded arms with his enemy.
‘Elephints a-pilin’ teak, in the sludgy, squdgy creek’ is one of the more memorable lines from Kipling’s poem. Teak was one of Burma’s prize commodities. By the end of the 18th century supplies of oak were becoming scarce for both British and French shipbuilders on account of their protracted wars. Teak was considered by many to be superior to oak, being durable, resistant to sea water and less prone to splinter when hit by cannon fire. The French had established a teak shipyard in Syriam as early as 1729, and British timber companies, using elephants, or ‘hathis’, for labour, exported the wood to Calcutta to build ships for the Honourable East India Company (HEIC).
With the renewal of Anglo-French hostilities in 1803, the Royal Navy hastily acquired a number of teak warships from the Company such as the 4th raters HMS Hindostan and HMS Malabar. An even larger teak vessel, the 74-gun HMS Hastings, newly-built by Kyd & Co. of Kiddapore, entered service with the Royal Navy in 1819. One of Kyd & Co.’s later shipbuilding projects for the HEIC was a 160t wooden paddle steamer called Diana. Utilising a pair of 16hp steam engines that had been brought to Calcutta in 1822, the Diana is believed to have been the first steam ship to serve East Indian waters. She was purchased by the British government in April 1824 for its first military intervention against the still largely unexplored region adjoining British Bengal.
By 1824, the descendents of King Alaungpaya, who had founded the Konbaung Dynasty in 1752, had greatly expanded Burmese territory. Conquered lands included Arakan, the southwest coast of modern Myanmar, and Tessarim, on the north-western edge of the Kra Isthmus. Under the rule of King Bagyidaw, and led by his charismatic general Bandula, Burmese armies had entered and dethroned the rulers of Assam and Manipur, whose supporters had fled to British-Indian provinces from where they launched insurgencies. As the Burmese began to intrude on British Indian territory, a clash became inevitable. The First Anglo-Burmese War was declared on 5th March 1824. The Burmese military proved to be a formidable fighting force on land, and made significant early gains against British and Indian troops. However, they were soon to be outflanked by warships of the HEIC.
The small squadron of warships assembled for the First War were all below the size of a standard frigate. The largest, HMS Liffey (50 guns), had been one of a class built in response to the War of 1812, as had the 6th rate HMS Larne (22 guns). HMS Sophie (18 guns) had been one of more than a hundred Cruizer Class brig-sloops built during the Napoleonic Wars. The squadron also included the teak-built 6th rater HMS Alligator, which had been launched at the Ceylonese port of Cochin. All these vessels had the advantages of being heavily-armed for their size but with shallow draughts ideal for coastal cruising. They were also economical as they needed much smaller crewa than traditional frigates. Nevertheless, they were not popular with sailors, being cramped and prone to roll heavily at sea. In command of this modest naval force was Commodore Charles Grant aboard Sophie, while captaining the Larne was the future novelist Frederick Marryat. Commanding the overall expeditionary force, which comprised 10,000 British and Indian soldiers, was General Archibald Campbell, a veteran of Indian counter-insurgency work.
Campbell’s forces rendezvoused at Port Cornwallis in the Andaman Islands. From there, the fleet set out for the southern port of Rangoon. Their arrival on 11th May was so unexpected that its residents largely fled. This gave the British forces time to entrench before Bandula’s counter-attack, which involved more than 30,000 troops. With nothing to match the firepower of the occupiers, which included not only naval artillery but also the inaccurate but awe-inspiring Congreve rocket, Bandula’s army was swiftly routed.
Campbell’s subsequent victories all rested on the ability of his warships to ferry troops and provisions along the coasts and up the Irrawaddy. With a reliable speed of 5 knots, The Diana was to prove particularly useful in towing British gunboats upriver. It was also involved in the chase and destruction of a large number of oar-driven imperial ‘praus’, leading one observer contentedly to remark: ‘the muscles and sinews of men could not hold out against the perseverance of the boiling kettle’.
This defeat and others at key river and coastal settlements led to the humiliating Treaty of Yandabo, signed on 24th February 1826 at a location a few miles south of the Burmese capital of Ava. The treaty codified the cessation of the provinces of Arakan, Assam and parts of Tessarim to British India, and an indemnity of ‘one crore of Rupees’ (£1million) to be paid in silver. The severe terms of the treaty reflected the extreme cost to the British side of the exacting two-year conflict, which had nearly bankrupted the HIEC, and taken the lives of up to 15,000 men, mostly due to malaria and cholera. Victims included Commodore Grant and one quarter of his ship’s crew. The British eventually withdrew to the areas ceded to them, establishing a de facto capital at the south-eastern port town of Moulmein, the site of Kipling’s romantic reveries. Bagyidaw remained in power at Ava, a proud and uncooperative ruler until his overthrow in 1837.
Bow Creek to Anatahan 