Page 238 - The Tigris Expedition

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Carlo was preparing lunch when a large police boat entered t ^
harbour and the uniformed men on board spotted us c
dhows. We got our bamboo poles ready, but three police o ice
transferred themselves to a tiny motor-boat before they came up o
us with extreme caution and climbed on board. Two of them were
Indians in large turbans, and the police captain, from Delhi, was as
pleasant and congenial as his Scottish colleague from the customs.
These visitors, too, sat down for a long and interesting chat and
then left, confirming that our landing permit would be signed the
moment the Sultan entered his office; it was waiting on his desk.
In the afternoon a small boat from the West German consulate
came near and the German consul told Detlcf that he would contact
the un representative in Oman and also the American Embassy.
Then another police officer boarded Tigris and wanted our crew
list. I told him the list had gone ashore with a colleague of his, but
this was unknown to our new visitor, who suggested that the
previous one was probably from the ‘detectives’ and not from his
police. I typed up another crew list in five copies, and to my surprise
this pleased the police officer so much that he agreed to tow us in
alongside the mole, where we could use the toilet facilities of a small
green metal shed of unmistakably long-time service.
Our hearts were in our throats and our bamboo poles were ready
for push-off when the police-boat towed us zig-zagging between
the dhows and delivered us to a concrete dock. We already had our
mooring lines ashore when our agent turned up and shouted that
this was the wrong place. The right one was a mole set at right-
angles to the first. The police-boat made a full turn and we all
rushed to the other side of Tigris to use our poles for a smooth
docking there; we had to protect the cross-beams on deck fore and
aft, which jutted out beyond the berdi and could be broken. It was a
crazy manoeuvre, but Rashad was already ashore on this second

31. Thor and Thor. The author at the helm turns to avoid a ship that
seems intent upon running us down; as it passes it proves to be the
orwegian merchantman Thor /, a recent replacement of the Thor I
that in 1947 brought the Kon-Tiki raft back from Tahiti.
. In the shipping lane. In daytime and with wind we could steer
away, but at night or in calm weather we had problems. Tigris sailed
under the United Nations fla
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