LONDON—Working from recently discovered ships’ logs and archaeological findings, a team of historians announced Monday they had pieced together a detailed account of the Carnival East India Company’s maiden cruise—the very first seafaring journey to the Far East dedicated solely to the enjoyment and entertainment of its passengers.\n
Beyond its promise of general leisure, the ship is known to have offered several scheduled entertainment options, the most popular of which was the nightly opportunity to have clergymen flagellate any passengers who believed they deserved punishment for their idleness, frivolity, or other mortal sins. In addition, it is believed that voyagers could disembark at various ports of call to gawk at “savages” and buy small satchels of spices, indigo dyes, jade, or opium.
“Several surviving written accounts of the voyage mention that by far the most popular diversion on the H.M.S.was a kindly Italian magician named Giuseppe who performed a simple cup-and-ball routine and was adored by the children on the ship,” Carter said. “In fact, many aboard expressed regret when, after roughly 48 hours at sea, Giuseppe was burned alive on the main deck by a mob of passengers who had charged him with the crime of witchcraft.
“I am a full Fort-night into my Sojourne, but only thryce yet have I beene poisen’d unto vomitous Bile and runny-ing Feculence by somme be-fouled Pottage or badly salt’d Meate,” Osborne wrote in praise of his experience aboard the H.M.S.’s maiden voyage. “Verily, not Two-Score Deathes have I witness’d of late, and those mere Cases of Scurvy, Drowning, Dæmon possession, Grippe, Mariner’s Palsy, or Childe-birth.
“At one point, the Carnival East India Company actually laid claim to an entire 2,400-acre island intended as a private retreat for its passengers,” said Carter, referring to a remote desert isle in a then-uncharted region off the coast of Siam. “However, years of cannibal attacks eventually forced the company to abandon it.
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