Expert: Mark Smith - 3/25/2011

Question
Hi,I am looking for ships lost to  the East India Company (or other) at the cape of good hope in the early 1800s
was this common?
was the East India Company the only major one who would take passengers from England to India at this time or was the Dutch East India Company/other also doing these voyages?
what major ports of call(destinations) were in India for these ships?
on these ships were the British soldiers leased to the company or where the entirely a Private force independent of the colonial armies?

Answer
Hello Andrew.
I answered a number of questions similar to this a year ago. If you go to my profile page on Allexperts and click on Previously Answered Questions and go back to March 2010 you'll see them.
I can find two East India Co ships that were lost off southern Africa in the early 1800s; the Ganges on 29 May 1807 and the William Pitt on 16 December 1814.
Mark