Page 153 - Arabian Studies (V)

William Leveson Gower in the Yemen, 1903 143
the China Station. Nine months later he was promoted Midship­
man and on 29 July 1899 was transferred to H.M.S. Cleopatra for
three months. After a short spell of service aboard H.M.S.
Cambrian he was promoted Sub-Lieutenant in April 1900 and
appointed to H.M.S. Alexandra for the year preceding June 1901.
Then, based at Portsmouth, he served both in H.M.S. Sylvia and
H.M.S. Star. During most of the year 1902 he served on the
Mediterranean Station both in H.M.S. Scout and H.M.S. Hood
before he was lent to Harrier. There is a mention in the Admiralty
records of his having commanded a slaving dhow in the Red Sea in
November 1902. In this assignment he did well for, early in the
following year, Their Lordships expressed appreciation of his
services In the suppression of piracy and the slave trade in the Red
Sea. Even the British Ambassador in Constantinople could scarce
forbear to cheer: ‘It is evident’ he wrote to the Admiralty in May
1903 ‘that Lieutenant Leveson Gower acted not only with ability
and determination in his Naval capacity but with such tact and
judgement as to avoid arousing local susceptibilities, while inflict­
ing a severe lesson both on the pirates and on the Turkish authori­
ties’.
He had taken advantage of his Red Sea adventures to study
Arabic. By July of the same year he had qualified as an interpreter,
no doubt taking his examination under the civil authorities in
Aden.
It is not clear whether he was still embarked in Harrier or
commanding the slaving dhow (rather pretentiously named H.M.S.
Irrepressible) in July 1903 when he disembarked at Hodeida to
undertake his mission. One thing is certain, he had to put thoughts
of ‘inflicting severe lessons’ behind him, unlike Sir Home Popham
a hundred years before him, before entering the potentially hostile
territory. The journey which he was then about to make through
the Yemen could hardly have been connected with piracy or the
slave trade. He could not have stayed in San‘a’ long enough to carry
out any negotiations. Neither subject was mentioned in his notes
and he did not recount any discussions with the Turks or any of the
Imam’s henchmen. However, it is likely that he obtained useful
information from Giuseppe Caprotti, the well known Italian trader
resident in San‘a’ for thirty-five years.
Leveson Gower’s journey from Hodeida to Aden via San‘a’ was
almost certainly, at that crucial time of mid-1903, an intelligence
mission to spy out the land and report on topographical features
and military dispositions in connection with the Anglo-Turkish
Boundary Commission, after the Turks had resumed a more
cooperative attitude. Altogether, from the notes that he left, he