Page 231 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition
something magnetic to police inspectors about our widest point,
where the door-opening of the main cabin gaped towards visitors.
Or perhaps our entire vessel looked like an indcstructablc fender of
bundles and ropes, and that a head-on arrival was the usual way of
boarding barges and floating platforms. Certain is it that a bow
appeared in our cabin door for the second time. While we on Tigris
ran about on deck and cabin roofs yelling and waving our arms m
despair, Haras II seemingly took a good aim and rammed us with
great force precisely where we had been hit the last time. HP rolled
over on his back as the bow of the police boat hit him in the
stomach. He and Yuri were sitting side by side in the low door
opening and both were pushed inside, where Norman sat alone in
his corner with ear-phones on his head. Norman did not believe his
own eyes when he saw a large bow closing the doorway. Fortu­
nately the gunwales of the police vessel were higher than the side
bundles of Tigris, so the ship ran up into the six strong backstays to
the mast and was stopped by a network of rope and bamboo
devised by Carlo to reduce the danger of tumbling overboard in
heavy seas. Bamboo, canes and rigging squeaked and creaked
while masts and cabin wavered under the impact.
When we had recovered from the shock and had ascertained that
our ship was still in one piece, we began to look for the police-boat,
ur wild behaviour must have seemed utterly uncivilised to the
tru y courteous visitors, who perhaps had only come to welcome us
but now escaped at full speed in the direction of Muscat. After all,
flr C- 1 en<?e ab°ut our solidity had proved justified by a test, so
y a we chased them away with such an impolite war dance?
iNorman received a new message from shore: we were told to
nor vor jntC-jna,tl0I?a^ waters outside Muscat until next day; it was
*Tlu decidcd Aether we would be permitted to come ashore,
awav Tr ilf are ?n a rccd-raft,’ I said to Norman. ‘We’ll drift
cannot come bto^on" ^ t0 anCh°r ^ ^ °PCn ^ A'k why W°
United Nationf fl^ messa8e> anc* added that we sailed under
‘Believe it or not ’If • mfment a^cr he took off his ear-phones:
on board.’ ’ ° Said’ say it is because we have a Russian
The dh
was convinced that^3*11^ US unexPectecHy close to shore, as if Said
a habitation to be^ Woidd no i°nger escape. There was scarcely
resembled a walled SC^r* ^ut at one P^ace we saw what most
pets partly hiding i .medlCVal burgh with defence towers and para-
® Arabian-style buildings. One of the Sultan’s

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