Page 380 - The Tigris Expedition

CHAPTER 1 1

Five Months for Us,
Five Millennia for Mankind

A new moon seemed to mark a new phase of our journey as we
sailed away from Socotra, the first African island. We found rough
seas and varying winds during the night, and both Norman and I at
one time believed we sighted the black contours of the high west
cape as we slid past in the sparse light of a slender sliver of moon.
Farewell Socotra! For some time we all saw powerful search-lights
far away in the direction we had come from. By sunrise we could
see the whole of the tall west coast of the island behind us, and by
late morning we were once again alone with the sea, surrounded by
most of our former companions of the water.
Two days later we passed at good speed close to the uninhabited
bird island Kal Farun, tall and shaped like a shark’s tooth, glittering
with guano. We noted that the drawing of Kal Farun and the one of
Jazirat Subuniya had been interchanged through an error in the pilot
book,1 and assumed that few ships ventured here since the same
book referred to strong tidal currents changing in opposite direc­
tions between these rock islands. But at that very moment, as the
sun and sky turned red for sunset, we were overtaken by two ships
that came on a converging course behind us, one of them clearly
from the direction of Socotra. Both ships changed course to come
straight for us side by side, and as they seemed to run up one on
either side, we hoisted the United Nations flag. The two ships
immediately responded by hoisting the Soviet colours, and we
could now read their names: Anapsky and Atchuievsky. They were
Russian trawlers that bore every sign of having been long at sea and
in need of paint. Yuri climbed up on the cabin roof and rejoiced as
he danced and waved his cap. Flocks of seabirds circled around us
and dived for Fish all the time. At first there was little reaction from
the thirty men on each ship, although they were all lined up at the
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