Page 366 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition
stir^\v^r!?0tt?n ^ °thur t^lan astr°nomcrs and astronauts. The

w, e no Q1JScr a chaos of sparks like the plankton of the sea.
We recognised them and the time and direction of their paths, as
t ley rotated over the bow and the sail, in the same order and with
the same speed night after night. No wonder that the peoples of
Mesopotamia and Egypt, with their wide open spaces, became
master astronomers who knew the exact rotation period of all the
main heavenly bodies, navigated by them, and gave our ancestors a
proper calendar system.
There were nights on the bridge when I felt that Tigris was a sky
rocket. The bundles were blue with phosphorescence and sent off
dancing sparks, while behind each rudder-oar was a long bright
light resembling the dim headlights of a vehicle; but since we drove
away from them they became more like a burning exhaust, full of
sparks, while we flew with our black sail in the opposite direction,
amongst the stars.
On 1 March the diary reads: ‘We started our journey in
November and are still on board in March. It is incredible, but
yesterday and today the sea on port side smells offish! Is it possible
that all these creatures packed just below the surface, which indeed
smell above water, can send out an odour that reaches us when they
are in sufficient numbers?’

A few days later we were suddenly torn away from the world of is
and early man. Norman had managed to establish good radio
contact with the modern world, still far away. But we could dear y
hear Frank at Bahrain Radio, and radio messages came wit e
pressing regularity. Tigris was suddenly on a collision course wit
political events. Four months had gone since we launched our
reed-ship in Iraq, and four weeks after we sailed from Pakistan
when we ran into serious steering problems. Not because I igris
would no longer obey the rudder-oars, but because major areas in
front of us had become forbidden territories.
We had hoped to sail from Meluhha to Punt, today Somalia, since
Egyptian records speak of this fertile part of Africa as having been
visited by their sailors and merchants. Requesting permission to
land there, we got the first warning from London via Bahrain
Radio: ‘No one in Somalia answering phones yesterday as major
town had fallen to the Ethiopians. Very strongly urge you not to
attempt to land on any of these territories.’ ,
Somalia was at war. Yachts trespassing Somalian waters had
cen seized and their crews imprisoned. This meant that fifteen
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