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HISTORY OP THE INDIAN NAVY. 323
to desist, and the British colours were displayed. This bein^
disregarded, it was followed by a second shot, which had no
more effect. A moment's consultation was then held by the
officers, when it was thought a want of regard for their own
safety to use further forbearance, and a broadside was instantly
discharged among them all.
" An action now commenced between the ' Nautilus ' and the
two largest of the boats, mounting cannon, and continued I'or
nearly an hour; the trankies lying on their oars during the
contest to await its result, and seize the first favourable moment
to board. As the superiority on the part of the cruiser became
more decidedly apparent, these latter, however, fled, and were
soon followed by the others, the whole of whom the 'Nautilus'
pursued, and fired on during the chase as long as her shot
would tell."
iVmong the killed in this action was the boatswain, and
among the wounded, Lieutenant Thomas Tanner,* who survived
to a great age, and, in the year I80D, was elected Mayor of
Exeter, his native town.
These repeated aggressions of the Joasmi, coupled with an
insolent demand from the Chief of Ras-ul-Khymah, whose
harbour was the principal resort of the larger craft, for the
payment of tribute by the Bombay Government, in order that
their merchant ships might be permitted to traverse the waters of
the Gulf unmolested, atlength opened the eyes of theGovernor ot
Bombay and Court of Directors as to the fatal impolicy, and,
indeed, absurdity, of the instructions enjoined upon their naval
officers. The public voice called for the punishment of the
piratical horde which had heaped insults and injuries on tiie
English name, and when the blood-red Joasmi flag was seen
flaunting itself on the coasts of Cutch and tScinde, and twenty
craft were captured in Indian waters, the authorities awoke to
a s'ense of shame and bethought them it was high time to make
a hostile move if British trade was not to be driven out of the
Persian Gulf. These counsels were quickened by the aggres-
sions of the Wahabees, who had established a preponderance
throughout Oman, so that the Imaum was virtually dependent
upon them, while, in another direction, their armies a^tpeared

* Lieutenant Taiinei* was a gallant aiul meritorious ollicer, and Imd alro.vly
done good service to his country. Ue entered the Royal Navy in March, 1801,
on board the 'Fisgard' frigate, under command of tlie late Sir Byam Martin,
Admiral of the Fleet, and assisted in blockading the combined French and
Spanish fleets in the port of Brest; he was also employed against the enemy on
the coasts of France and Spain, and in cutting out from under the batteries at
Corunna the twenty-gun ship ' Neptune,' a gunboat, and some morcliautmen.
After the peace of Amiens, m 1802, Air. Tanner was transferred to the liombiiy
Marine, and served under Commodore Hayes and other ollicers, on the coast of
India and among the Eastern islands of Borneo and the AIolucc:is, before pro-
ceeding to the Persian Gulf, where, and at Mocha in 1820, he saw much
service.
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