Page 71 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition
seen as trade-marks decorating the box-lids ofstonclcss Iraqi dates.
When I first came to Iraq, Indian sailing dhows used to ply
regularly between Bombay and Basra, but due to smuggling this
traffic had come to a temporary standstill. The Indian consul in
Basra had therefore promised to get me three professional dhow-
sailors through the Seamen’s Union in Bombay. However, before
! he could complete the transactions he was transferred from Iraq and
I was planning to go to Bombay myself and hand-pick the men, but
too many other tasks held me down to the boat-building site. The
bbc then promised on my behalf to locate dhow-sailors through a
seamen’s agency in Bombay: the requirements were three men
thoroughly familiar with sailing in the gulf and at least one with
some knowledge of English.
Cables from London confirmed that the three men had been
hired and were on their way by plane from Bombay. Two weeks
later the men were still missing and a new cable confirmed that they
were temporarily lost in New Delhi, where they had gone to get
their promised Iraqi visas.
While the bbc and the Bombay agency tried to relocate the lost
dhow-sailors, the expedition members started to arrive to assist
with the launching and the final superstructure. HP flew home to
Norway to cool off and rest before the voyage started, and a new
acquaintance, Detlef Soitzek, a young captain in the German mer­
chant navy, came to take HP’s place as my right-hand man in the
shipyard. Then came three of the experienced reed-boat sailors who
had been with me on both Ra I and Ra II: the expedition navigator
and second in command, Norman Baker from the usa; the
expedition doctor, Yuri Senkevitch from the Soviet Union; and the
Italian mountain climber Carlo Mauri. The new men followed a
few days later: Toru Suzuki, underwater cameraman from Japan;
my Mexican globe-trotting friend Gherman Carrasco, who had
been back home since escorting the Aymaras from Bolivia to Iraq;
Asbjorn Damhus, the young Dane from the United World Col­
leges; and the mystery man Norris Brock, the American film
photographer sent to us by the National Geographical Society as a
sort of independent outsider.
We were seated at a greatly extended table in the big hall eating an
excellent supper on 2 November when Ali came in with the happy
news that he had found the lost Indian dhow-sailors: they were
standing in reception with their duffle-bags. We all left our plates in
sheer excitement to welcome our lost companions, who were to
join us for at least the first leg of the expedition. There they were:
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