Page 340 - INDIANNAVYV1

308 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
^vitll a guard of thirty Sepoys. " Thus," says Captain Play fair,
" through the entire success of this Expedition, the national
character was honourably redeemed from that stain v/hich the
natives of Arabia admitted it had received, and were surprised
we had so long tolerated ; and important advantages were ob-
tained and secured by treaty."* While serving on this Expedi-
tion, Lieutenant Thomas Tanner, of the ]\Iarine, made a survey
of the fort and batteries of Mocha, which forms one of the ]:)latest
m Major Straith's "Treatise on Fortification," the text book for
the scientific services.
On the conclusion of the arduous operations at Mocha, Captain
Lumley issued the following order :—
" H.M.S. ' Topaze,' off Mocha, Dec. 21, 1820.
" The gallant and spirited conduct displayed by the captains
and commanders, and all the officers and seamen, artillery and
sepoys, of the Company's cruisers, under my orders, during the
late arduous attack and destruction of the forts of Mocha, having
met my warmest approbation, I take the present opportunity of
conveying my high sense of their very njeritorious services on
that occasion ; and I am to request that the respective captains
* This treaty had not long been concluded, when a disposition appeared on
the part of the Imaum to cTade its provisions. The first instance occun-ed in
considering whether Indian merchants, trading to Mocha under the protection of
the British flag, shared equally with the Enghsh merchants in the benefit of the
reduction of duty to 2\ per cent. As, however, the terms of the treaty were
ambiguous, and afforded good grounds for disputing the right to insist on this
privilege, the point was waived. Early in the following year, it was observed
that another, and much more serious, oversight occurred in the treaty, namely,
that the stipidation which provided tliat the dependents of the factory should be
entirely under Britisli protection and control was omitted in the Arabic counter-
part. This circumstance was made known to the Imaum, but he declined to
rectify it ; iipon which he was given to understand, that, if attempts were made
to seize or punish any person, of whatever nation, who might be in the Resident's
exclusive employ, the latter was immediately to withdraw from Mocha,
pending such steps as the Government of India might deem it necessary to
])ur8ue.
t This plate is numbered 4 in the Fourth Edition of Major Straith's work,
and consists of plans, numbered 144, 145, and 146. " The two forts," says
Straith, " stood on two pi'ongs, which, abutting into the sea, completely defend
the harbour and sea front of the town of Mocha. Each of these two forts
mounted a heavy battery of iron guns, with casemated embrasures, and both forts
were well within range and support of several heavy batteries on the sea front of
Mocha." Speaking of the first unsuccessful assaults of the North Fort, the same
—
authority says : " Even had the assaulting party been provided with scaling
ladders, it would have been almost certain destruction, for they would have been
exposed, in the interior area, to a concentrated loop-holed fire from three sides of
the quadrangle ; and even if the lower entrance into the casemated barrack-rooms
had been forced, the upper apartments would have secured a safe retreat, from
which a deadly fire would have been poured down on the heads of the assailants,
the ti-ap-doored staircase being a removable ladder. The plans and sections of
these forts are given in figures 145, 146, as showing the sorts of defences to be
expected in offensive opei'ations in these quarters of the globe, and the hopeless-
ness of attacking them without the effective assistance of artillery." We learn
from Greneral Sir George Le Grand Jacob, brother of Lieut. W. Jacob, that the
latter was blown into the air by a mine sprung in the breach, and that he was so
seriously hurt that, for some days, his life was despau-ed of.