Page 99 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition

film. Norris answered that he had in fact intended to ask for this. He
wanted to become one of us. And he did.

We remained three days anchored beside the reeds, repairing and
strengthening our steering-bridge with better lashings and more
cross poles. Also, two men were ashore buying thick brown buffalo
hides which we cut up and tied on to the reed bundles where the oar
shafts and anchor ropes would tend to wear. We even began to build
two tiny outboard toilets, one on either side aft, which we screened
with coiled chola mats obtained from the Marsh Arabs. The sun-rise
and the big southern moon were spectacular, but the north wind
was biting cold at night and we pulled the canvas down on one side
of the cane wall, which was so airy that we could see the stars
between the wickerwork. The day temperature sank to 17°C (62°F).
On the afternoon of the third day we hoisted sail and continued
the voyage down river. Norman had cut up one of our rowing oars
and tried with the Russian carpenter to add something to the oval
rudder-oar shafts at friction points to make them round. Failing
this, they tried to plane off the thickest side. The oars still jammed.
They remained as two monsters threatening to destroy the bridge
whenever we turned and there was heavy pressure on the blades.
Norman had to defend his system against growing criticism from
Carlo, Yuri and me. The discussion died down when we saw
Norris’ head over the cabin roof and heard something that sounded
like baby hiccups inside the forward cabin. That meant that his
voice recorder was working. It was radio linked to a tiny mechan­
ism in his back pocket. We quickly agreed that we had to pull the
rudder oars ashore at the first place we could dock and reduce the
steering colossi closer to their original size.
The sailing was good, with an estimated three knots, when the
sun went down and we were seated around our kerosene lamps
eating Rashad’s Arab rice with raisins and onions. The two helms­
men on the steering bridge, with heads above the roof, shouted that
ahead long flames were licking their way towards the river. We all
climbed up on to the table and roofs. Norris was already in the mast
top. In the darkness we saw three long horizontal flames from tall
gas chimneys flickering over the river. We held close to the other
bank with our reed-ship, which still rode high and very dry, and it
was a spectacular and even dramatic moment as we sailed past the
huge flames that seemed almost to reach us and lit up everything on
board from sail to cabins and our own faces. They even lit up all the
palms on the opposite side of the river. Shortly afterwards we

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