Archive

On Flag Day (June 14) and Independence Day (July 4) each year patriotic Americans will climb to the second floor of a nondescript building on the Mall in Washington, DC, and enter a dimly lit, cavernous room to stand before the most sacred item in the National Museum of American History: the Star-Spangled Banner. The fragile flag, bearing 15 stars and 15 stripes (for the 13 colonies plus Vermont and Kentucky, which later joined the union), is today only a faded and tattered remnant of the 1814 original. But it is one of the holiest icons of American life.
During the War of 1812 (which ended in 1815), British Navy ships began, on the night of September 13, 1814, a heavy bombardment of Fort McHenry, a promontory protecting the inner harbor of Baltimore. A giant American flag, measuring 30 x 42 ft, could be seen flying over the Fort from long distances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Maryland lawyer, Francis Scott Key, very much an American patriot, viewed the bombardment while he was on board a British Navy vessel, which in several accounts is identified as the HMS Minden. Why was he on a British ship? It was a gentlemanly arrangement. Key had gone on a sloop from Baltimore to negotiate with the British commander for the release of American prisoners, including the well-connected physician Dr William Beanes. Initially rebuffed, Key finally obtained permission to return with the released American prisoners. But by then, it was too late. Since both Key and Beanes had learned about the plan to bombard Fort McHenry, all the Americans were detained through the night of September 13. They witnessed "…the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air…” in cannonades from as many as 19 British vessels.
On the morning of September 14, "…by the dawn’s early light…,” Key rejoiced to see that, despite the massive bombardment, "…our flag was still there…” According to some reports, swelling with patriotic pride, Key began to compose a poem while still on board the HMS Minden, and it was published soon after his return to Baltimore under the title Defence of Fort M’Henry. Within weeks Key’s poem "went viral” throughout the American colonies, with as many as three publishers clamoring to include it in their collections just one month later in November 1814. Much later, in 1931, the first verse of this poem was officially adopted as the US national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, with the melody, an old British 18th century tune, apparently originally recommended by Key himself.
After the bombardment of Fort McHenry, the flag was taken down and kept by the family of the fort commander, Col George Armistead. But so great was the patriotic fervor that small pieces were cut off and given to friends and relatives as souvenirs so that today it is only 80% of its original size. Armistead’s grandson donated the tattered remnant to the Smithsonian Institution in 1912. 
The British Royal Navy had outsourced the construction of the HMS Minden to India. Outsourcing, in general, is different from importing. In outsourcing, the design and manufacture of items originally made in the home nation are consciously transferred to a foreign company specifically commissioned to produce and export back to the original designer/manufacturer. British warships were designed and constructed in England until 1750, when an enterprising Indian, Lovji Wadia, created Asia’s first dry dock, the Wadia Shipyard, which is still in use at Bombay Harbor.
Outsourcing must make economic sense — the foreign production must be cheaper and/or better than the original production done in-house by the commissioning firm; detailed designs must be put down on paper (or these days in software) and shared with the foreign firm; and the foreign producer/exporter must be able to understand the technology and standards expected by the commissioning firm. Also, the commissioning firm must have confidence that the foreign producer/exporter will meet its quality and delivery standards.
Building a large, 74-cannon man-o’-war was no easy task, and the British Navy had exacting standards. But by 1810, the Wadia Shipyard in Bombay had met all technical criteria, as well as the expectations of the British Navy. The clincher was the realization that not only was production in India cheaper, but a vessel made from Indian teak, which is resistant to marine worms, would far outlast one constructed from European oak. (The HMS Minden fulfilled this hope, and its life spanned 51 years.)
The Wadia Shipyard had been in existence since 1736, gradually building larger and larger vessels for the East India Company, some of whose ships were also taken over by the British Navy. However, the HMS Minden was the first officially outsourced vessel. The British sent technical experts with detailed plans, and they conferred on Jamsetjee Wadia (grandson of the founder) the title of Master Builder.
In the portrait by J. Dorman, Wadia can be seen holding the blueprint of the HMS Minden, a pair of calipers, and a folding measuring rule tucked in his sash, while through a window the artist depicts the ship under construction in the Bombay dry dock. Altogether, the Wadia Shipyard built over 400 ships, including 41 warships that served the British Navy in many battles. (One ship, the HMS  Trincomalee, commissioned in 1812, is still afloat as a museum at Hartlepool, England.)
The collaboration between the British and the Wadia family was mutually greatly beneficial commercially. But reports survive asserting that, despite the technical ability of the shipyard and the many orders it received, the British continued to be brusque and dismissive toward Indians. On one of the vessels, the HMS Cornwallis, Jamsetjee (or one of his sons) carved the inscription: "This ship was built by a damned black fellow AD 1800.” Carved deep inside on the keelson of the ship, the inscription was not seen until the Cornwallis was decommissioned and Lt Col John Briggs discovered it. British rule in India was far less racist and brutal compared with other colonizers. Nevertheless, attitudes of superiority persisted despite evidence that Indians could be as efficient, globalized and entrepreneurial as anybody.