Loss of the St. Jacob

The Loss of the St. Jacob (Tabet af St. Jacob), also referred to as the Seizure of the St. Jacob(beslaglæggelsen af St. Jacob), was a destruction and seizure of a Danish merchant ship, the St. Jacob, by local Bengali authorities. The loss and destruction of the ship and its crew, led to the Dano-Mughal War, which would last for 56 years.

Background
With the establishment of Danish India in 1620 by Ove Gjedde, the governorate at Tranquebar, which was the center of Denmark's trade in Asia, was handed over to the Dutchman, Roland Crappé (admin. 1621-1636). During his administration, he established a far-flung string of Danish factories from Malabar in South India to Makassar on Sulawesi.

Bengal was one of the many locations where Crappé tried to establish a Danish presence at, and he eventually established a manned factory at Pipli in 1626, which according to Dutch records, did well during its first year.

Seizure
Even though there is some evidence that suggests to Danish seizures of Bengali ships in the 1630s, the main reason behind the war declaration of the Danish East India Company, was the loss of the ship St. Jacob. St. Jacob. was a ship with 130 loads, which left Copenhagen together with the ship St. Anna in 1635 and reached Tranquebar on 3 September 1636.

The ship was on a regular voyage from Makassar to Masulipatnam when it was driven by harsh weather into Bengali waters. It then tried to go to the port at Pipli, where it was spotted by local authorities. The local Bengali authorities allegedly prevented Danish assistance to ''St. Jacob. '' This subsequently led to the ship being wrecked, its crew being allegedly poisoned, its passengers being imprisoned and its cargo being seized. Even though the Danes who survived escaped and the ship passengers eventually were freed, the Danes could not negotiate the release of the cargo from the Bengalis.

Aftermath and consequence
Dutch records suggest that the St. Jacob cargo was seized in response to the high Danish debts, yet the Danes saw this as a tyrannous act of the Bengalis, and demanded 25.000 rigsdaler for the replacement of the ship and 150.000 Rigsdaler for the lost goods. Appalled by the loss, Pessart sent a formal declaration of war in 1642 and sent two of Tranquebar's best ships to retaliate the loss of ''St. Jacob. ''