Page 370 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition
preVtcTtherCh' AU wind d>ed down at midnight, and we were a
shore And ‘TlT 7' SCOUtcd in vain for lights from ship or
then red wo ° ^ ° l flrSt greW bn8ht 8reen in the east and
men red we scanned the horizon for land. There it was again, and
^ eirrt umi es awaY- We had been carried back and were once
more ott that part of the island we had left the night before, but
much nearer. The polar bear was now huge and close in, and we
wondered how sand could have been sent that far up the hill. The
sandy hill marked the eastern headland of the main island harbour
with the capital of Hadibu. For the first time we could distinguish tall
trees and a few houses on the west side of the bay. No sign of life.
No smoke. Strangely, the big island seemed deserted. New kinds of
fish came out to us, and we were surrounded by at least a hundred
trigger-fish. Here again were plenty of Neptunus crabs. Birds too.
But no people. The sea began boiling everywhere around us, far and
near, in patches, with tiny silvery fish. Our dolphins were away
hunting. There were numerous porpoises. There were even three
big whales blowing water off the cape. But no boat came out from
the main harbour, and nobody shot at us. We began to speculate if
the island could have been abandoned due to political trouble or
other reasons. Norman picked up a new message from Frank in
Bahrain: ‘The German Foreign Office advise Tigris not repeat not
to land on Socotra due severe difficulties [underlined].’
We began to sail very slowly away with a faint breeze, made 1 *2
knots over the surface, but the current was always against us. The
surface for miles began to appear polluted, covered as if with
soap-suds. The diary records:

This pollution increased in quantity as the afternoon and evening
passed; it came in bands like the ‘red tide’ and could be seen from
horizon to horizon, in places packed like sheets of snow. On
inspection we found it full of tiny brown eroded oil clots as in the
Atlantic. We have seen the clots without the suds for days. A so
we saw oily slick mixed with the suds and drawn out in para e
strings like slime. Terrible. And the crabs run in this filth, also t e
gaping dolphins in pursuit of the billions of minute fish. All
afternoon we have sailed here and there to escape the lslan , e^elJ
tried to steer back and turn around its coast on the east cape, u
all in vain. Now at 6 p.m. we steer for the same tall west cape we
headed for last night; but our position is much worse, for we are
almost within the three-mile limit. We are too close to e
comfortable. We see a few army tents on a cape where a trail r
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