Officer’s Presentation Sword awarded to Lieutenant Samuel Snook, Bombay Marine (metal)

Officer’s Presentation Sword presented to Lieutenant Samuel Snook, Bombay Marine. Snook received this fine sword from the East India Company Court of Directors in 1799 for returning a group of women who were stranded in India to their home in the Pelew Islands (Palau) in the Pacific. When the party disembarked from the East Indiaman ‘Warley’ in July 1798 the locals, Snook reported, were ‘very happy to see me and their friends again’. This humanitarian act greatly improved relations with the local tribes and allowed for the use of the islands as staging posts for Company ships in the region. Snook had earlier came to prominence following his work surveying the Pelews in the ‘Panther’ during 1780. In 1818 he became Commodore in Goa. The Bombay Marine was the fighting navy of the East India Company and protected its ports and trading vessels from rival European powers and Asian pirates. Its personnel were also responsible for surveying and exploring Far Eastern waters.