Page 298 - The Tigris Expedition

hi the Indus Valley in Search of Meluhha
coastguard in Karachi. His Norwegian salvage-tug operated all
over the world. At the moment it was working in the Indus delta,
pulling grounded vessels off the mud-flats in the labyrinth of
channels between the mangrove swamps. They had just come back
to base in Karachi and rescued an old Greek ship on fire outside the
harbour when they received radio instructions to salvage Tigris in
west Ormara bay. ‘But coming here we find your boat at anchor in
the bay with everyone dancing on the beach!’
We tried to think out what might have happened, since we
ourselves had sent no radio message when we sailed into the surf of
Ormara bay. Norman was in fact ashore with Rashad, and when he
came back at night to ride the surf at anchor with us, we needed
nobody, and nobody could have come to our help fast enough
anyhow. Perhaps it had been this very silence, and the fact that a
major sandstorm was known to have swept from the Arabian
peninsula to Pakistan that day, that had led to speculation that Tigris
had been wrecked. That night, however, my entry in the expedition
journal had read:

Terrible onshore wind now howling in the masts as we dance
in the surf with wild splashes. So we go to bed fully dressed with
an inferno of waves lifting us up and down, lightning in the sky,
wind and water so noisy that the grasshopper in the galley can
scarcely be heard. Dhow said before it left that this anchorage was
safe for us but not for them. They would come back tomorrow or
try to send somebody else. Insh Allah. It is not a pleasant moment
for me and my men as we now go to bed. Right now the stormy
wind is howling. Will our anchors hold? Insh Allah.

Next morning we woke up to find ourselves in a calm bay. We
were in shelter; there was now an offshore wind. At sea the waves
ran white. I had been up and out by 4 a.m., aroused by the change
that I could feel even in my sleep. It was again this strange silence, as
if we were back on the rivers of Iraq; suddenly there was no surf, no
more jumping, only a slow rolling all along the broad bay on either
side. But in the distance I heard a sound as of a great waterfall
coming from inland. Clearly a strong surf was running against the
narrow isthmus from the other side and the weather had changed

44. After a storm we had problems in replacing a broken topmast.
249