Page 304 - The Tigris Expedition

In the Indus Valley in Search of Meluhha
had withdrawn again. It was good to know that Tigris was
afloat, independent of the tides in the bay on the other side. 1 ie
drag on the ropes during the storm had been so great that the anchor
shafts had bent, but the grip had held, probably because the stern
had touched the bottom. After this first visit to the village we
hurried back to make sure that the two men left alone on board had
no problems. On the way across the isthmus we met to our surprise
a young lieutenant of the Pakistani coastguard, who was camped
with his men in four tents at the tip of the dragon’s tail. He was
polite from the moment he started his interrogation, but over­
whelmingly friendly when he learnt that the name of our little
‘dhow’ was Tigris. He had a radio in his tent and had received a
message from the Coastguard Command in Karachi that ‘a large
ship named Tigris' was cruising in the waters of Makran, and that he
should not make any difficulties but provide all assistance needed!
He was personally responsible to his superiors in Karachi for the
whole Pakistani part of the Makran coast.
We had not known that the Makran coast was out of bounds to
foreigners, and we never learnt why, as we could not have imagined
a friendlier reception anywhere. The coastguard lieutenant, the
schoolmaster, the police, and an expert from Karachi who was
organising local fishery, all spoke English and became true friends.
The Urdu-speaking population also did their best to show us
hospitality, inviting the men into their huts and treating them to
gifts of fresh lobster. Some came with eggs and goat’s milk.
The confusion concerning the landing of our ‘big ship’ could not
have been cleared during the discussion between the Ormara tent
and Karachi headquarters that day. The lieutenant went back to his
field transmitter to report that Tigris was here. We went back to our
own bay, where Norman sat in his cabin corner desperately trying
to make contact with any part of the outside world. He at last heard
a voice with a garbled message to the effect that a ship was on the
way from Karachi to Dubai and would stop at Ormara to deliver
800 gallons of water to Tigris! Norman did his best to yell into the
microphone that we had more water than we needed for another
three months, and eight hundred gallons more would sink our ship.
But nobody seemed to hear him.
When we told our story to Captain Hansen of Jason, he assured us
that he had not brought us any water nor was he bound for Dubai;
he had come with orders to salvage Tigris and bring us to Karachi.
And he was ready to give us a free tow any time we wanted.
We got together to discuss what to do. After our experience with
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