Page 100 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

excuse which was a very valid one, and having failed with him,
he tried the Shaikh. Shaikh Abdulla was not asked to accompany
the landing party, but lie was asked to supply some of his retainers
to accompany the sailors and show them which were the boats
of the Joasmi. He, too, made ‘considerable demur’, but Loch
indicated that unless he agreed to provide the men, lie would be
detained on board the ship, ‘night drawing on, he at last gave his
consent’. In view of subsequent events, to which Loch docs not
allude in his diary, it is interesting to hear from Loch himself what
measures he took to ensure that the ships against which he des­
patched a landing party were, in fact, pirate ships. Knowing that
the Banian was unreliable, having completely changed his story
about the European Lady, Loch might have suspected that his
report about there being Joasmi ships in the harbour was open
to doubt.
Boats from the squadron assembled alongside the Eden under
the command of Lieutenant Daniel, one of Loch’s officers, accom­
panied by Moffath, some officers from the other ships, all the
available midshipmen, and a few of the Shaikh’s retainers who
had been reluctantly provided by Shaikh Abdulla. It was night
before the preparations were completed, and darkness added to
the difficulty of attacking unknown ships in a crowded unfamiliar
harbour. At midnight Loch, on the deck of the Eden, heard
‘considerable firing of musketry and guns in the harbour’. This
continued for some time. An hour later, he saw a signal rocket,
fired from one of the boats. This was the signal which had been
arranged to let him know when the landing party had gained
! possession of the pirate vessels. Loch had passed a very anxious
hour or two, as he says: ‘none but those who arc placed in a
similar position to the one in which I now was could have the
slightest notion of the anxiety, hope and ultimate supreme joy,
when the most welcome signal was made.’
The boats returned. Only one of the sailors had been wounded
but the pirates had suffered considerable casualties, though many
of them had jumped into the sea and swam ashore. The pirate
vessels were driven on to the beach by a strong north wind which
had come up in the night. One of them was a baggala, the largest
type of sailing vessel in the Gulf, carrying a crew of 150 men.
‘She was considerably lower forward than aft, having a high poop
which was formed into a sort of castle, defended by the chiefs and
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