The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c16.2

c16.2

It is uncertain at what date the Peshwas first cast their eyes towards the sea and decided to extend their authority in that direction. The treaty of 1713 left the best ports and harbours in the possession of Kanhoji Angria, and no mention is made of the Peshwa’s fleet either in the treaty concluded in January 1722 between Baji Rao and Francisco Jose de Sampaio e Castro or in the treaty of 1732 (1731-32 30 January 10 February) between Krishna Rao Mahadev, Governor of Kalyan, and Martinho de Silveira de Menezes, Captain-General of the fortresses and lands of the North. But Baji Rao must have organised a navy sometime between this date and 1739, for reference is made to the Peshwa’s fleet in Baji Rao’s treaty with the English in 1739¹, as well as in the treaty of 1740-41 concluded between the Governments of Poona and Goa.² By 1750 the Peshwa’s fleet had also begun to exercise authority by sea like the older navy of the Angrias; for on 14 January 1751, Padre Angelo dos Serafins wrote from Goa to a friend in Portugal that in spite of the amity established between the two States by the treaty of Poona the Marathas did not desist from harassing Portuguese trading vessels at sea.³ In 1755 Edward Ives saw the Peshwa’s fleet near the harbour of Bombay.⁴ He writes: ‘During my stay at Bombay two fleets of country vessels came into the bay: One of them belongs to the Nanna or prince of the Maharattas, the other to Monagee Angria, the brother of Angria the pirate. These vessels were not unlike the Tartans of the Mediterranean, only a great deal lower; they carried two guns in the bow, and a vast number of men. . . Each fleet consisted of about 30 sail.’ But this was not the total strength of the Peshwa’s fleet in the middle of the eighteenth century. It consisted of more than fifty vessels when it was sent to co-operate in the same year with Commodore James. As Commodore James complained of the cowardice of the Peshwa’s fleet, stating that it rendered him no assistance but only caused loss of time, we may assume that the Peshwa had not yet been able to enlist experienced seamen. His Admiral was Naro Pant who, according to Captain Low, had earned some distinction as a soldier on land, but had had no experience of the sea.¹