Page 123 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

from wood imported from Mazandcran ‘which was afterwards
wrecked at the head of the bay of Bushirc, where her bones were
to be seen at the period I am writing’. Persia had a long seaboard
in the Gulf, but she has never had a navy of any importance
though, in the first half of the iSth century, the Persian Ruler,
Nadir Shah, attempted to create one.
The Shaikh came on board the Eden with a salute of guns, and
after going round the ship, Loch entertained him in his cabin: he
was given fruit and coffee, and the Shaikh complimented Loch
on the excellency of the coffee, made by ‘Honest Ali’ who had
been borrowed for the occasion to help Loch with his guests.
Shaikhs, when they visit British mcn-of-war today, are always
given coffee, invariably they politely praise it though, as it is usually
made in the English way, they find it almost undrinkable. ‘The
Shaikh was apparently much gratified with the reception which
he met with’, so Loch hoped that the visit ‘might have a good
effect in preventing impediments being thrown in the way of our
merchant vessels in discharging and embarking their cargo’.
On May 2nd, tlic Eden left Bushirc for Bombay. A few days
later, four ‘country vessels’ were sighted, which may have been
pirates; the Eden attempted to catch up with them, but at nightfall
they escaped. Next day, ‘two strange sail’ were seen; the Eden
overtook them, and found that they were two of the Sultan’s
frigates returning from a cruise down the south coast of Arabia.
One of Loch’s difficulties was the recognition of ships from a
distance, for there were no means of identifying trading vessels,
ships of the Sultan’s fleet, or pirates, who frequently used captured
vessels.
On the same day, in the afternoon, six large sailing dhows were
seen near the Quorns, at the entrance to the Gulf. ‘The wind
was light and baffling, and inclined to calm now and then, and
the ship was unmanageable.’ Next day, the weather was the
same, but ‘oppressively hot’. Neither the Eden nor the six vessels
could have steerage way. The dhows lowered their enormous
sails, hoping that, as the hulls were not seen from the deck , we
would not observe them at all.’ Then the breeze came up, and
when the dhows saw the Eden coming towards them, with all
sails set, they made sail, keeping close together, showing no signs
of haste. ‘As we closed on them, they drew nearer to each other,
I now observed their determination to attack and board us, three
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