The 2018 game Return of the Obra Dinn features an East Indiaman run by the British East India Company in the early 1800s staffed with not only British Islanders, but also in moderate amounts by other Europeans and people from even further abroad. How accurate is this?

by Fubwhf

The framing story of the game is set in 1807, although the majority of the events take place in 1802. Here is a list of the crew as presented in the game (spoilers in that link as well, by extension) -- the first, second, and third columns are names, occupations, and country of origin respectively. The ship is primarily staffed by British natives, but there are mainlander Europeans present in various capacities aboard the ship. Additionally, several of the seaman are from India, China, Africa, Persia, or New Guinea.

I have a few questions in regard to this portrayal:

-How accurate is it? Was the average makeup of an East Indiaman (not even those necessarily owned by the British) this diverse?

-Was country of origin ever a major factor in deciding who to hire or not? The bosun’s mate is French, for example, and while I don’t believe the Napoleonic Wars had started yet in 1802, I doubt relations were exactly cordial.

-How would crew from e.g. China be hired on one of these ships? Did the EIC have recruiting offices in places in Asia? Were they afforded equal payment and treatment as European crew?

voyeur324

/u/Environmental-Cold24 has recently answered a similar question about the Dutch East Indies Trading Company which I remembered because the question was provoked by the same game as yours.