Page 398 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition
on board the floating navy dock-ship tcd Ouragan followed, and a
buffet dinner hosted by the charming American couple Chantal and
Walter Clarke, who were as depressed at the local situation as we
were. As Charge d Affairs Walter Clarke had not yet had time to
open an American Embassy, so young was the republic.
Only one person had to know about our plan: the harbour
master. Otherwise the port fire brigade and navy helicopters would
come out the moment they thought they detected an accident. We
wanted to be alone at the end.
Tigris was towed out of the harbour with usual clearance papers
and anchored, sails up, off the lighthouse on Musha island, a small
coral isle outside the port. Before we lowered the United Nations
flag I wrote a telegram to the man who had granted Tigris the right
to sail symbolically under this flag. The message was passed to
everyone on board for approval or disproval:

Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim,
United Nations.
As the multinational crew of the experimental reed-ship Tigris
brings the test voyage to its conclusion today we are grateful to
the Secretary-General for the permission to sail under United
Nations flag and we are proud to report that the double objec­
tives of the expedition have been achieved to our complete
satisfaction.
Ours has been a voyage into the past to study the qualities of a
prehistoric type of vessel built after ancient Sumerian principles.
But it has also been a voyage into the future to demonstrate that
no space is too restricted for peaceful coexistence of men who
work for common survival. We arc eleven men from countries
governed by different political systems. And we have sailed
together on a small raft-ship of tender reeds and rope a distance of
over six thousand kilometres from the Republic of Iraq by way of
the Emirate of Bahrain, the Sultanate of Oman and the Republic
of Pakistan to the recently born African nation of Djibouti. We
are able to report that in spite of different political views we have
lived and struggled together in perfect understanding and friend­
ship shoulder to shoulder in cramped quarters during calms and
storms, always according to the ideals of the United Nations,
cooperation for joint survival.
When we embarked last November on our reed-ship Tigris we
knew we would sink or survive together, and this knowledge
united us in friendship. When we now, in April, disperse to our
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