Page 52 - The Tigris Expedition

In the Garden of Eden
With reluctance I also went with the bbc representative to the
University of Southampton, where a six-foot plastic model of the
reed-ship had been built according to my own drawings. It was to
be tested and filmed in a wind-tunnel as well as in the sea. It was
beautiful to see the big yellow model bobbing in the waves while
the nautical experts from the university pressed buttons for long
distance control that made the rudder-oars twist and the little vessel
turn and roll sideways to the waves. It would even cut into the
waves when the total area of the oar-blades was increased, and
achieve a real tack.
The lesson of the experiment was that the bigger the sail and the
more or the bigger the oar-blades put into the water, the better the
twin-bundled raft-ship tacked into the wind. The final result from
the wind-tunnel studies would be mailed to me later. There were
only a few slight hitches: the model was made of plastic and not
reeds; no one knew how deep the reed-ship would sit in the water,
nor how fast the changing buoyancy would decrease her original
freeboard. Besides, the delivery of the model had been delayed and
by the time wc got the answers from the wind tunnel it would be
too late to change the measurements of the sails and oars already cut
to size to meet the transport deadline from Hamburg.
Just outside Southampton was the beautiful Broadlands estate,
the home of Admiral of the Fleet, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma,
where I was expected for lunch. Common interests in the sea and
other means of bridge-building between nations had made us
friends in recent years; his enthusiasm had led the old Sea Lord to
make me honorary Vice-President of the United World Colleges,
of which he was a very active President. As a member of the Royal
Family and former Viceroy of India he had friends and contacts all
over the world and had succeeded in getting students even from
China enrolled at Atlantic College in Wales, one of the units I had
recently visited. Apart from bringing together bright boys and girls
from all nations, the United World Colleges put a good deal of
stress on marine life-saving and on boating as a sport.
I had promised Lord Mountbatten to bear in mind some of the
graduate students if I ever again had plans of maritime experiment. I
had now just fulfilled my promise. I wanted a truly multinational
crew on my planned voyage from Iraq. The late Secretary-General

8. The reed-ship Tigris sails down the Shatt-al-Arab on its way to
the sea.
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