The "JAVA" was built in the Calcutta Dockyards in 1811 and was launched from the yard of Blackmore and Company of Howrah. She was quite a large ship, of 1175 tons and 159 feet, 2 inches long, by 40 feet, 6 inches wide with 6 feet, 1 inch between the decks, built in the style of the ships of the East India Company. David MacGregor, in "Merchant Sailing Ships 1775-1815", said that she "was licenced to trade to India... and must have been one of the largest merchantmen afloat that was not chartered by the East India Co."

There does seem to be conflicting information concerning this relationship with the East India Company. Clarence Winchester in "Shipping Wonders of the World" published in 1938 said of the "JAVA" that

"she was one of the beautifully made teak ships ... launched in 1811, during the Napoleonic wars.

At that time the Navigation Acts treated India as a foreign country, and ships built there could not be given British Registry, or trade with the mother country without special permission. But the French privateers were taking such a toll of British shipping that the authorities were grateful for anything that would float.

In 1813 the JAVA was admitted to British registry in the service of the East India Company. She had an unusually long active life for an East Indiaman, remaining on this service until 1827."

This is clearly in conflict with McGregor; somewhere between the two authors must be the true situation- I believe that it was in fact an East Indiaman.

The "JAVA", whilst having the title of East Indiaman was perhaps better known as what has been called a "country ship". This was the name given to ships that traded between the ports of the East.

In an essay, "Extraordinary ships in an exotic commerce", in "The East Indiamen", (in The Seafarers series), by the editors of Time-Life Books, a very good description is given of the construction of the "country ships" which I cannot better for an insight into how the "JAVA" would have been constructed. I quote:

 "Country ships were custom-built in Indian shipyards to resemble the mighty English Indiamen that eastern pirates had learned to fear, but they were in many ways superior to their European look-a-likes. Their hull was cut from Malabar teak, a strong, oily, almost knotless wood that often lasted a century without rotting. Each plank was rabbetted into its neighbour so tightly that calking was unnecessary. Instead an iron-hard resinous glue was laid between the planks, giving the finished hull the appearance of being cut from one solid piece of wood. Below the waterline, the hull was smeared with a remarkable compound of fish oil and lime that both repelled wood devouring teredo worms and prevented the accumulation of layers of mossy sea flora that clung to the copper plating used on British vessels.