Page 583 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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GULF OF PERSIA.
coves are safe to run into in case of necessity or in chase, but there is a
risk in all, unless you have a commanding breeze, and in all it should
be recollected the ground is bad for anchorage, especially where
exposed to the prevailing winds.
The soundings outside are from twenty-two to ninety fathoms, but
in some parts you will have thirty and forty fathoms, When under the
perpendicular clifFs between Perforated Rock and Kassaab Bay, care is
required to prevent your being carried into the coves, or Discovery
Strait, by the tides, either ebb or flood, especially on the springs, when
they are very strong, or in light winds.
Discovery Strait is easy of access, and forms a good sheltered anchor­
age for cruising vessels on this coast, if taken in blowing weather, but
I would rather recommend Kassaab Bay for cruising vessels to run to
during the hard north-weslcrs in the winter months; but vessels
having no object in view I should advise never getting on this part of
the coast if possible, for in light winds it will often cause considerable
delay in their getting clear of the Gulf. In 1S21 the variation in these
parts was 4° 5' W., now (1827) it is 3° 35' W.
Ras-ool-Yeddee.
Ras-ool-Yeddee, in lat. 26° 13' 42" N., long. 5G° 16' 30" E., is a high,
bluff' point, not very conspicuous unless when you are close in with the
land. There are eighteen fathoms of water close in. The villages of
Algeerea and Yeddee are situated between this and Bokkai Point ; they
contain ^about one hundred and sixty inhabitants of the Shehaheen and
Tannagee Tribes, mostly fishermen. At Yeddee are some wells of
pretty good water, easy of access, but the exposed anchorage renders it
a place unfit for watering, except in cases of necessity. The beach
commences at Ras Yeddee. Ras Yeddee bears S. 41° W., nearly
three miles and two-thirds from Ras Shaikh Mansood.
Bqkha Point.
Bokha Point, in lat. 26° 9' 27" N., long. 56° 14' 10" E., is something
similar, when close in, to Ras-ool-Yeddee. In a small sandy bay,
towards Yeddee, is a ruinous square Ghuree, with a few unserviceable
old guns, mostly dismounted. The village contains between three and
four hundred men, principally of the Tannagee and Shehaheen Tribes.
The Shaikh is a dependent of the Imaum of Muskat. He has under his
government about sixteen or eighteen hundred people of all descriptions.
There are some other trifling defences about here, but none of any
consequence. There are a few straggling date groves, and a small plain
near. Before the pirates obtained such power as they possessed before
the expedition, there were very extensive date groves about here, but
destroying the date trees being a principal object in Arabian warfare,