Alexander Sharpeigh
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Alexander Sharpeigh ( fl. 1607–1613), was an English merchant and sea-captain.


Career

He seems to have been in the opening years of the seventeenth century a factor of the Levant Company at
Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
, in which capacity he probably acquired some knowledge of
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
. Early in 1608 he was appointed by the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
to be captain of their ship ''Ascension'', and general or commander of the fourth voyage to the East Indies. The two ships, ''Ascension'' and ''Union'' (captained by Richard Rowles), sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1607–8, and from Plymouth on the 31st. Touching at Grand Canary and at the Cape Verde Islands, they arrived on 14 July in Saldanha, (
Table Bay Table Bay (Afrikaans: ''Tafelbaai'') is a natural bay on the Atlantic Ocean overlooked by Cape Town (founded 1652 by Van Riebeeck) and is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, which stretches south to the Cape of Good Hope. It was named b ...
). There they remained till 20 September, when they sailed to the eastward; but the night coming on stormy and dark, the two ships lost sight of each other and did not again meet. Touching on the way at the
Comoro Islands The Comoro Islands or Comoros (Shikomori ''Komori''; ar, جزر القمر , ''Juzur al-qamar''; french: Les Comores) form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the southeastern coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and northwes ...
, at Pemba, where her men had a severe conflict with the natives and some white Moors, and at Almirante, the Ascension came to
Socotra Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’ ...
on 29 March 1609, and on 10 April crossed over to Aden, where the governor, having invited Sharpeigh on shore, as though to a conference, kept him and his attendants close prisoners for six weeks, and released them only on payment of goods to the value of two thousand five hundred dollars. Getting away from Aden without further attempt to trade, Sharpeigh went to Mocha, where there was "a good market for English commodities." Thence he returned to Socotra in August and sailed for Surat. On 28 August the ship arrived at Mowa, where they could have got a pilot for Surat for twenty dollars. The master, however, refused, saying that he was able to take the ship in himself. On the 29th he tried it, missed the channel, and stuck the ship on the bar, where in three days she broke up. With some difficulty the men got on shore to Gandevi, where they were kindly received by the governor. On 9 September they reached Surat, but were not allowed into the town. They remained in a neighbouring village till the end of the month, and then set out for
Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra i ...
, which Sharpeigh, deserted by most of his men, reached almost alone after a tedious journey, and was well received by William Hawkins, then residing in that place. In October 1611 he embarked on board the ''Trade's Increase'' at Surat, with Sir Henry Middleton. It would seem that in 1613 he was agent for the company at Bantam, but the notice is vague, and his name does not occur again.


References


Attribution

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharpeigh, Alexander English sailors British East India Company people 17th-century English businesspeople