The American National Anthem: The Star Spangled Banner was written in the early 19th century by Francis Scott Key, a lawyer. Key’s wrote the song aboard the ship HMS Minden, which has an India connection. HMS Minden was built in Bombay by the Wadias, a famous ship-building family, for the British and is supposed to have been the first Indian built ship commissioned by the British.

35-year old Key, a lawyer, set sail from Baltimore in 1814 and was on his way to release one of his good friends from the British, when he wrote the words for this famous American patriotic song. While aboard the ship Keys, often described as an amateur poet, wrote what was originally titled as “Defense of Fort McHenry,” which later came to be known as The Star Spangled Banner. This patriotic song was officially adopted by the US navy in the later 19th century and it was only in 1931 that it became the US national anthem under President Hoover.

Key is a distant relative of Scott Fitzgerald, the famous 20^thc American author, whose work highlighted the Jazz Age and Gilded Age of America in the 1920s and 1930s.

The India Connection: In the late 18th century once the British established their foothold (from a toehold) in India they were focused on expanding of trade between India and other countries. It was the lucrative trading opportunities that brought the British to the shores of India. Initially, it was spices and later on went to include cotton, jute, and opium among other commodities. Cotton, opium and jute were huge revenue generators, and by one account opium was one of the most important revenue generators for the British. Hong Kong was founded by the British in order to carry on their opium trade to China. An Imperial Chinese decree forbade any foreigners from trading directly with China, but they could carry on through the cohong merchants. I digressed, so back to the British in India. In order to carry on the trade it was essential to have a good shipping infrastructure, including dry-docks and ship-building capabilities.

During the British rule the Parsi and Baghdadi Jewish communities were granted special privileges and benefits to carry on trade with the Far East and China. And members of these two communities travelled extensively to Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong and China (Shanghai, in particular).

Members of the tightly knit and educated Parsi community played a key role during the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th centuries. The Wadia family originally from Surat, Gujarat played a significant role in the building of Bombay (Mazagaon) dry dock and the ship building industry in India and later on played a key role in the textile industry (Bombay Dyeing Textiles).  Bombay Dyeing is owned by Ness Wadia, grandson of MA Jinnah.

In the late 18th century the Wadias were involved in repairing and fixing ships for the British during their wars with the Dutch and the French and the family went on to build  Bombay’s  first dry-dock, which was the first in Asia in 19th century.

In the early 19th century the family was commissioned to build HMS Minden, a 74 gunship, which was later on deployed to the Baltic to fight against the Russians. But in 1814 the ship was in the USA, which is when Frances Scott Key sailed on it and penned those famous lyrics.

It must be pointed out that there is some dispute as to whether Key sailed the HMS Minden or not.  But, the fact remains that India and US had maritime trade connections during the 18th and 19th century.  Another little factoid: Yale, a well-known Ivy League university, is named after Elihu Yale, who was the British governor of Madras in the 19th century. Yale gave a sizeable donation to the school and is not the founder of Yale University.