Dear Mariners, I am an ecologist with an interest in ships as vectors for the introduction of non-native species, and this is my first foray into this kind of forum. Apologies if I've chosen the wrong place for this query! Does anyone know of an SS Hindustan operating in the southeast Asia in the very late 19th century? This ship was supposed to have introduced non-native black rats to Christmas Island (360 km south of Jakarta) in Dec 1899, and in doing so introduced a blood-borne disease that caused the extinction of two species of local, endemic rats. I have searched the shipping news in digistized newspaper archives (esp the Straits Times from Singapore) for the period, but cannot find a record of this ship sailing between Singapore and Christmas Island. Its entirely possible the ship sailed from Jakarta. Its also possible the Dec 1899 date is incorrect, and may in fact be around Aug/Sep 1901. Any help appreciated! Many thanks, Pete Green Dr Pete Green Department of Botany | La Trobe University | Bundoora VIC 3086 T: 03 9479 3675| F: 03 9479 1188| W: www.latrobe.edu.au<http://www.latrobe.edu.au/> La Trobe University - ranked top in Victoria for student satisfaction (Sweeney Uni Student Report, 2009) CRICOS Provider 00115M J Please kindly consider your environment before printing this e-mail Warning to recipients: This email and any attachments are confidential and subject to copyright. If you are not the intended recipient any use, disclosure or copying is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error please advise us immediately by reply email and delete all copies. It is your responsibility to examine this email and any attachments for viruses. Any personal information in this email must be handled in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic).

----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Green" <P.Green@latrobe.edu.au> To: <Mariners-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 10:20 AM Subject: [MAR] SS Hindustan in Singapore/Jakarta/Christmas Island late 1890s Hi Peter, > > I am an ecologist with an interest in ships as vectors for the > introduction of non-native species, and this is my first foray into this > kind of forum. Apologies if I've chosen the wrong place for this query! To be pickey possibly TheShipList would have been a better pick but no worries :-) > > Does anyone know of an SS Hindustan operating in the southeast Asia in the > very late 19th century? This ship was supposed to have introduced > non-native black rats to Christmas Island (360 km south of Jakarta) in Dec > 1899, and in doing so introduced a blood-borne disease that caused the > extinction of two species of local, endemic rats. I have searched the > shipping news in digistized newspaper archives (esp the Straits Times from > Singapore) for the period, but cannot find a record of this ship sailing > between Singapore and Christmas Island. > > Its entirely possible the ship sailed from Jakarta. Its also possible the > Dec 1899 date is incorrect, and may in fact be around Aug/Sep 1901. The date is a possible problem a ship of this name came into the Port of Sydney quite a few times in 1897 See http://tinyurl.com/3z2wc3g. . Are a lot of refs in the Sydney Morning Herald 1897-8 . At a quick glance looks like its home port might have been Surabaya ? See http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/search?adv=y May also have been another ship with the same name operating around the same time ! Bye MargM Beautiful NSW Central Coast Australia