The East India Company often recruited additional sailors to their crews when they called at Calcutta and Bombay, to fill gaps which had emerged in their crews during their voyages. But with the advent of steam, lascars were routinely employed in the stokeholds of steam ships, and from then on, 'Asiatic' seamen became a regular sight in Britain's ports. By no means all were South Asian. Lascars were also recruited from Shanghai and Aden, and some of these seamen went on to establish the Chinese, Yemeni and Somali communities that still thrive to this day in many of Britain's seaports. The South Asians that were recruited came from a variety of localities, and formed some of the early migrant communities in Britain.

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