View of Bombay Harbour - 1800

This is plate 1 from James Wales' 'Bombay Views'. The series was painted for Sir Charles Malet (1752-1815), the British Resident of Poona, who met Wales in Bombay in 1791.

The panoramic view (which continues on plate two) depicts the dockyard and fort areas, including the Pier Head Battery on the left. Chaul, the seaport of Konkan, can be seen on the right, with the island of Karanja on the left. Completed in 1784 under the governorship of William Hornby, the Hornby Vellard was the first major work of reclamation in Bombay. The dockyard itself was initiated by the famous Wadia family, who moved to Bombay from Surat in 1736. Bombay soon began to develop into a major trading town and by the middle of the century workers from the neighbouring towns, including the Bhandaries from Chaul, and goldsmiths, ironsmiths and weavers from Gujarat, migrated to the island.

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