Page 192 - The Tigris Expedition

Wc Gain Control of Tigris

when HP shouted from the steering platform that he saw a strange
white box floating right in front of the bow. Next moment wc felt a
violent jerk throughout the ship. HP completely lost steering
control and Tigris swung around with the sail and the long loose
loops of the guide-ropes hammering and snapping at all and
everything. In a few chaotic seconds our ship had come to a dead
stop; it was as if we had been caught by a giant fish-net in the middle
of the sea. And that was just what had happened. Wc saw a thick,
red nylon rope encircling us like a sea snake as the white box began
dancing and then vanished beneath the waves. Others could now be
seen bobbing up and down on the waves. We never saw the net they
held. Like a Tarzan, Detlef leapt to the side and swung himself
overboard, hanging in the stays, and with his sheath-knife he cut the
thick rope that held us captive and threatened to rip the reeds apart.
We had no other choice to save our vessel and its rudder oars. The
red snake lost its tremendous grip; dead and powerless it floated up
on the wave crests beside us and let Tigris pass as HP regained
steerage. Hanging alongside with goggles Detlef could detect no
damage to the bundles.
A few hours later Tigris was surrounded by real sea snakes, some
red as the nylon rope. For a couple of days they dominated the sea
around us. Horrible-looking creatures embellished with the most
gorgeous colours. Most of them floated sleepily over and between
the waves at our side, like severed bits of rope about the length of a
common adder. Others undulated independently of the waves; they
swam on the surface with all the attributes of real snakes. And they are
real snakes. Twenty such marine species are known in the area where
we now found ourselves and in the Gulf of Oman immediately
outside the Hormuz Strait. Nineteen of these species have a deadly
bite. But they are drowsy and hardly ever attack. The different kinds
are distinguished by their great variety of colour and design.
I was prepared for their presence, but the first one I saw happened
to be wriggling on the surface right beside our reeds just as Detlef
threw a rope with a canvas bucket over the side and lifted it above
his head for a refreshing shower. The snake was not in his bucket
but Detlef thought it was when I shouted a warning, and he almost
fell overboard before seeing the snake twisting where he had just
filled his bucket. Brown on its back, yellow under, with black
zig-zag designs on its sides. The next we saw was yellow with black
spots, and some were bright red. For days no one dared to take a
bath or a bucket shower before checking the water for the infinity of
snakes that ruled the surface throughout this area.
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