Page 278 - The Tigris Expedition

Tigris and the Superships: the Voyage to Pakistan
Every day HP, Asbjorn and Carlo diverted themselves and
extended our provisions by fishing and spearing two of the most
savoury species: the dolphin, alias gold-mackerel, which shone in
colours of green, rust and bright gold when patrolling in all its
splendour down in its own kingdom, but was flat and dispropor­
tionate and faded to become a silver relief of a fish-tail with a
bulldog head when brought on deck. And the streamlined
rainbow-runner with its slim torpedo shape which merited its name
in or out of the water. Triggerfish, pilot-fish, remoras and any other
kind keeping us company we tried to leave alone, and we threw
them quickly back if they rushed on the hook before the fisherman
could get his flying-fish bait out of the way.
This was when Carlo insisted he had heard a grasshopper during
his night watch. We refused to believe him, but then I found one in
my own bed, yellow-green and as long as a finger. On my own
watch I heard one singing near me in the stern and another
answering from the bow. Soon we all heard grasshoppers every­
where. We saw them crawling and jumping about on reeds and
bamboo, and even taking to wing on short circles over the sea, but
always coming back to our marine haystack. They seemed to be
happiest among the bushy ends of the reed bundles at the top of the
high bow and stern. Having obviously embarked as silent stowa­
ways in Oman, together with a number of crabs on our bottom,
they had never seen such a wealth of vegetation in any part of the
barren Arabian land from which they came.
The wind was so strong at times that our mainsail ripped and we
had to take it down in the middle of the night at a moment when it
bulged like a parachute and pulled us ahead with such speed over the
swells that I was worried lest any man in the dark should make a
false step. For thirty-two hours we rolled about in a strong current
with a north-west wind and the sea-anchor out, but unable to steer.
We had passed 60°e, the longitude of Ras al Hadd, and when Toru,
HP and Asbjorn reported that they had mended the sail and that it

39. In the Indus Valley past and present thrive together. The Arab
fort is from the eighteenth century, the carts below are identical with
four-thousand-years-old ceramic models from Mohenjo-Daro.
40. Departure from Pakistan and the continent of Asia. Norman and
Yuri hoist the sail; we study our maps at the dining table as we are
now able to navigate and pick our own course.
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