Page 399 - INDIANNAVYV1

CHATTER XL —
1820—1824.

Loss of the 'Ariel'—Kepulsc of a British force by the Bcni-boo-Ali Arabs
Historical Sketch of the Bombay Marine Battalion—Success of the Second
Expedition against the Beni-boo-^Ui—Changes in the Uniform of the Bombay
Marine.
rj^HE Expedition against the Joasmi pirates in 1819, closed
J- with a terrible catastrophe to one of the ships of the
Bombay Marine, which was more fatal in its effects than the
entire British loss sustained throughout tlie preceding opera-
tions. The Hon. Company's cruiser 'Ariel,' wus a brig of 1(50
tons, carrying ten 12-pounder carronades, and, at this time,
a crew all told, of eighty-three souls ; her officers were
Lieutenants W. C. Greenway and Duff, two midshipmen,
Messrs. D'Arcy and Chitty, Mr. Garraway, gunner, and Mr.
Johnstone, boatswain. After taking part in the siege of
Ras-ul-Khymah, where her commander, who was a most
energetic officer and able seaman, received much praise from
Commodore Collier, the 'Ariel' was directed to proceed to
Bussorah with despatches, and it was in returning thence to
Bushire that she foundered. The brig left Bussorah on the
12th of March, 1820, and, during the night of the 17th, when
the accident occurred, the deck tlu'U being in charge of the
gunner, a most careful and experienced officer, was supposed to
be about twenty miles from the island of Kharrack. The
'Ariel' was beating against a south-easter under double-reefed
topsails, when the gunner, apprehending from the tlireatening
appearance of the sky in the north-west quarrer,* a sudden shift
* The prevailing wind in the Persian Gulf is the north-wester, called by tlie
Natives "Shemal," wliicli blows about nine mouths in the year in the northern
half of the Gulf. It blows almost incessantly during June and part of July,
when it is called the " Burra," or Great Sliemal ; the general d unit ion is three
days, though it sometimes lasts seven, and the worst shemals often hwt only one
day. This wind blows down the Gulf, clianging its direction with tlie trend of
the coast. In the northern part of the Gulf the air during the shemal is generally
loaded with dust from the deserts of Mesopotamia, wiiieh shrouds the land so
that often the white surf on the beach is the lirst sign of danger. In the Shatt-
ul-Arab, during the continuance of a shemal, the dust is so dense that neither
bank of the river is visible, and vessels, rigging, and decks, arc covered with Hue