List of ports of call of the British East India Company

The East Indiamen of the British East India Company passed many places and stopped at many ports on their voyages from Britain to India and China in the 17th to 19th centuries, both on the way and as destinations. Some of these places were simply landmarks, but a number of the places were the locations of EIC factories, i.e., trading posts.

In many cases the spelling of the names of these locations has changed between then and now. One purpose of this list is to link, where possible, the names as given in ships' logs with the modern name. Names in italics represent cases where the modern and older name are different.

A-B

• Acheh
• Amboina
• Amoy
• Anger or Anjere
• Angra Pequeña
• Anjengo - site of Anchuthengu Fort & EIC factory (1684-1813)
• Ascension Island
• Babelmandel Island
• Balambangan
• Balasore; Balasore Roads is about 125 miles south of Calcutta; it provided a sheltered anchorage for vessels waiting a pilot or favourable winds to take them upriver, or to transfer cargo
• Bandar Abbas
• Banjarmasin (See also Tamborneo)
• Bankshall - general term for the office of harbor-master or other port authority; at Calcutta the office stood on the banks of the Hooghli
• Bantal - west coast of Sumatra in the Moco Moco district (see below); 20 miles SE of Moco Moco and 17 miles NW of Ipuh (see below)
• Bantam; see also Banten Sultanate
• Barrabulla or Barra Bulla is a sandbank that forms near Kedgeree (see below) in the Hooghli River.
• Basara
• Batavia
• Bencoomat
• Benkulen or Bencoolen; see also Fort Marlborough
• Benguela
• Bimilipatnam (or Bhimili)
• Billiton is an island that also gave its name to a strait. See also Caramata. Billiton and Caramata islands flank a passage that connects the South China Sea to the Java Sea
• Bombay
• Bushire

C

• Calcutta
• Calicut
• Cannanore
• Cap-sing-Moon passage: A waterway between the northern tip of Lantoa and the Chinese mainland. Mah Wan Island splits the Passage into two channels, the narrower channel between Lanoa/Lantau and Ma Wan, and the wider between Ma Wan and the mainland.
• Cape of Good Hope; equally Cape Colony
• Cape Comorin
• Caramata )
• Caramata Passage; see also Billiton.
• Carnicobar
• Chumpee (Chuenpee) in the Bocca Tigris, the estuary of the Pearl River
• Chusan
• Cochin
• Cochin China
• Colvin's Ghat - a landing place (Ghat) at the offices of Colvin & Company, shippers, which were situated on the waterfront on the Hugli in Calcutta..
• Condore
• Coninga or Cocanada; sometimes referred to as Jaggernaickpuram
• Coringa
• Cox's Island (possibly Cox's Bazaar, Chittagong)
• Crooe (Optical character recognition may render this as "Croce") - Krui , about seven miles SE of Pisang Island
• Cuddalore
• Culpee (or Coulpy or Kulpi): an anchorage towards Calcutta, and just below Diamond Harbour

D-J

• Daman
• Delagoa Bay
• Diamond Harbour is about 41 miles south of Calcutta on the east side of the Hooghli.
• Diamond Point
• Diu
• False Bay
• Fernando de Noronha
• Fort St. David
• Fort St. George, India, also Madras
• Fulta (or Fultah) - one of several related locations (Fultah village, Fultah point, etc.) on the Hooghli River. It is not the present day Fulta, which is much farther south. It may be the present day Falta.
• Point de Galle
• Ganjam
• Goa
• Great Nanka (): one of the three Nanka Islands, which lie in Banka Strait, just off Banka Island (Palau Banka), which is part of the Banka Belitung Islands group.
• Hong Kong Bay
• Hugli or Hooghli
• Ingeli (or Hijili, Engelee, Ingelee, or Hidgelee): a point on the west side of the Hooghli Estuary
• Ipoh = Ipuh ; west coast of Sumatra, not the city in Malaysia
• Jagarall Creek, near Calcutta
• Jambi - EIC factory 1613-1681
• Jaggernaickpuram (or Jaggernaikpoeram, or Jagannathapuram). Also known as Cocinga or Cocanada
• Johanna

K-M

• Kamree Roads (Kamree may represent a mis-transcription of Ramree)
• Karrack (or Karrach)
• Karwar
• Kedah
• Kedgeree (or Kijari or Cutgerie), a point on the Hoogly half way between Calcutta and Saugor (see below), and a place where the river widens into a basin
• Kidderpore
• Kinsale
• Lintin Island
• Linton - probably Lintin ()
• Lombok
• Madapallam , (or Madhavayapalem)
• Madras
• Madura Island
• Mahé
• Maio, Cape Verde
• Malacca
• Managalore
• Manila
• Manna Point or Town, southeast of Bengkulu, on the west coast of Sumatra; now Mana ()
• Masulipatam
• Matavai, Tahiti
• Mew Bay - about two miles east of Tanjung Layar
• Mokha
• Moco Moco
• Muscat

N-R

• Negapatam
• Nagore
• New Anchorage, Calcutta, near Diamond Harbour and Kedgeree
• Nicobar Islands, or Nicobars.
• North Island - the northmost of three islands in the bay that formed the principle anchorage of Enggano Island
• Onore
• Padang
• Pattani
• Penang
• Perates - site where the East Indiaman Earl Talbot wrecked on 22 October 1800 with the loss of all hands.
• Pisang (), an island off the south coast of Sumatra, between Benkulen and Bengkunat (Bencoomat)
• Pissang, or Pulo Pesang; in the 18th Century, Pulau Pemanggil was known as Pissang.
• Point de Galle
• Pondicherry
• Port Cornwallis, on Ross Island in the Andaman Islands
• Porto Novo
• Porto Praya
• Priaman
• Pring: a pepper port some 16 miles northwest of Manna Point, on the west coast of Sumatra
• Pulo Bay - a now silted-up natural harbor about eight miles southward of Benkulen (Benkulu).
• Qishm
• Quilon
• Rajah Basah (or Raja Basa) Roads. Named for the volcano on the Sunda Strait, located at the most south-eastern point of Sumatra . The Roads are in Lampung Bay.
• Rangoon
• Rat Island: a small island west of Bengkulu
• Rendezvous Island (Pulo Bauwal/Bauwal Island); , Borneo
• Resolution Bay, Vanuatu; Captain James Cook named the bay after his vessel HMS Resolution
• Rio de Janeiro
• Rogues River: a section of the Hooghly River

S

• St Augustine's Bay
• St Helena
• Sadras Roads
• São Tiago also
• St Jago
• Saugor: is at the mouth of the Hooghli, about 100 miles downriver from Calcutta
• St Paul's Island
• Saldanha Bay
• Saloomah, or Saloomale; on the coast of Sumatra between Fort Marlborough and Manna Point. Now Pasarseluma, Seluma Selatan ()
• St. Salvador, or San Salvadore, or Salvador
• Santa Cruz
• São Tiago, Cape Verde
• Scindy road - probably the roadstead of Sindh, i.e., the waters off Karachi
• Second Bar - about 20 miles before Whampoa
• Samarang
• Sillebar or Silebar - on the Strait of Malacca on the north coast of Sumatra:
• Simon's Bay
• Sukadana
• Sulu
• Surabaya
• Surat
• Swally

T-W

• Tamborneo or Tomborneo
• Tapanooli, Tappanooli, Tapanuli, or Tarapouly, Sumatra — possibly modern Tapnoeli or Tapian Nauli — site of an EIC factory
• Teneriffe
• Teinchin
• Tiku
• Timor
• Tellicherry
• Tranquebar
• Trincomalee
• Trinidade
• Tristan de Cunha
• Tryamong; also an EIC factory site, possibly also known as Priaman.
• Urmston's Bay, formerly (pre-1823) Toon-Koo Harbour
• Vizagapatam
• Whampoa or Whampoa anchorage

Unidentified locations

• "Broken Ground" - Coromandel Coast?
• Capshee Bay
• Cockelee
• Doens (probably a typographical error for the Downs.)
• Hollis Bay (possibly a miss-transcription of Wallis Bay)
• Kissim Bay
• Lombon Strait (not Lombok Strait)

See also

List of Dutch East India Company trading posts and settlements

References

• Erikson, Emily (2014) Between Monopoly and Free Trade: The English East India Company, 1600-1757: The English East India Company, 1600-1757. (Princeton University Press). ISBN 9780691159065