Page 208 - The Tigris Expedition

We Gain Control of Tigris
rising vertically above us to still higher summits. Yet wc a
desperately trying with two oars to force ourse vc
avoid wreckage against Ras Shaikh, the first of the capes blocking
our way up to the Hormuz Strait. With good luck, wit wes er y
winds and probably northbound current along this coast , we
have a chance to make it - barely - insh-Allah!

Soon after, at 4.45 p.m. shipboard time, I made a note that the sun
had just set. We had by now sailed eastward into another time zone
and were almost ready to set our watches an hour on. Wc began to
see several ships’ lights outside us. The sombre cliffs turned into
ever darker shades, with a single star twinkling above them. Night
fell on us as a full blackout, just as wc coasted northwards excitingly
close to cliff-walls coming out like giant draperies from Ras al
Shaikh. This was the only place we could imagine that Rashad
might have come with Said in search of shelter. We maintained an
intensive lookout for any outline of house or ship, for any glow
from lamps. From the cabin roofs we waved our own lamps and
flashed signals with our torches. No response.
No lighthouse on this cape. No spark of light of any sort.
Nobody could be there. The little we could make out from shadows
discerned on the black rock walls justified the hostile impression left
from a distance in daylight. It would be suicide for us to venture in
between the dark mountain draperies to follow the curving canyon
indicated on the chart, even if it possibly offered a sort of narrow
shelter with a precipitous overhang on all sides. If the dhow had
ventured in there, one might think they would have managed to
place a lantern on the cliffs to show us their hiding place. At a speed
of two knots we passed the narrow entrance and left the cape, Ras al
Shaikh, behind.
I crawled into the cabin again and made another entry in the
diary. Our time was only 5.30 p.m. but it was pitch dark. Now we
had no idea where our lost companions could be. Captain Said must
have taken a completely different course from what we had
assumed. There was no other place to look for them between here
and the Hormuz Strait. We were rolling so desperately, sailing
barely into the wind in the coastal surge, that I got more shadow
than light from the tiny petrol lamp swinging from the ceiling and
almost hitting my head, and I made a note that although I sat on the
floor with widespread legs in an attempt to keep my balance while
writing, I would fall over unless I clung with one hand to the cane
wall. Nothing could be left loose on board. Hanging on the wall,

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