Expert: Mark Smith - 7/17/2010

Question
Hi Mark,

I'm a novelist, now working on a final copyedit of my new book, The Sandalwood Tree. According to my (apparently faulty) research, I had one of my characters departing from the Royal Albert dock in Liverpool and going around the Cape, making several stops, including Port Said.

From what I've read on your website, no one went around the Cape anymore by 1855, and according to the copyeditor, they would not have stopped at Port Said in any case. I read about stopping at Port Said in an original diary of the time, so I don't know what to think. Can you tell me what the ports of call would have been from Liverpool to Calcutta?

My novel includes letters to England posted by an Englishwoman on her way to India. They have a place and date on them so I need to get it right because one of them is from Port Said. If that is not right, where would she have stopped? What would her route have been and where she could have posted letters home.

And now, at the risk of being a bore, I will ask a favor: can you please give me an answer as quickly as possible. I'm working on a deadline (one week left) and have not been able to find anything online until I ran across your site.

Thanks so much,
Elle Newmark

Answer
Hello Elle.
Presumably you've seen the three answers I gave to a previous questioner asking very similar questions to you. If you look back at my previously answered questions you'll see them dated between 20 and 22 March.
Port Said did not exist as a city until the construction of the Suez Canal began in 1859. From the 1830s until the Canal was opened in 1869 the most common and quickest route to India was by steamer to Alexandria in Egypt, overland across the Suez Peninsula to Port Suez on the Red Sea and by another steamer to India.
I'm not entirely sure abouts ports of call en route to India, but it's likely the ship would have called at Gibraltar (possibly Vigo in Spain or Oporto or Lisbon in Portugal first) and Malta before reaching Alexandria. After the land route to Port Suez passengers embarked on another ship which would have called at Aden (in modern Yemen) before the final long journey across the Indian Ocean. Then it would have made one, two or three stops at the major ports in India; Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. In 1855 the railway network which later enabled passengers to disembark at Bombay and travel by rail to anywhere in India was only just being established, so the route to Madras and Calcutta in 1855 was by sea all the way from Port Suez.
Mark      

A few further points. The dock in Liverpool was the Albert Dock, not the Royal Albert Dock, that was in London.
Also, although ships did sail to India from Liverpool, most ships out of Liverpool were heading for the Americas. It was more common to sail from London or Southampton for India.