5 - The Geography and Protection of Maritime Trade

Summary

‘[Your orders are] to best protect the Trade … of His Majesty's Subjects and His Allies in the East Indies.’

An understanding of the physical features of this enormous station, including its primary weather patterns, and the trade routes which formed the skeleton of British interest and power in the region is helpful to appreciate how challenging it was for Rainier to provide trade protection.

The Station's Geographic Features

The actual area which the station covered consisted of more than thirty million square miles. It stretched from Canton in China down through the Philippines to Sydney in Australia, then west across the Indonesian archipelago and Bay of Bengal to India. Onwards over the Indian Ocean it went northwards into the Red Sea. Its western boundary depended on whether or not the Cape of Good Hope was in British hands. When it was, Rainier's command stopped short of the African coast south of Madagascar together with the key French islands of Mauritius and Reunion. Before the Cape was taken in 1795, and after it was returned to the Netherlands in 1801, Rainier had the doubtful privilege of covering the entire sea-lanes westwards to South Africa.