Page 133 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

waddled as fast as her fat figure would admit, to the security of a
big tree, behind which she hid. From there, she watched the
elephant demolishing her palanquin. Eventually, Mrs. Brink-
man had to trudge on her poor feet all the way back to Trinco-
malcc. Loch describes the affair, as ‘a most ludicrous accident,
which nearly proved fatal*.
On August 20th, the Eden sailed for Muscat. Owing to the
monsoon, Loch was compelled to make the southern route, run­
ning south across the Line to meet the south-east Trade Wind,
crossing and rccrossing the Line to fall in with the Southwest
Monsoon. At times, on this voyage, the ship covered 190 miles
in twenty-four hours. On September 30th, after a voyage of
4,190 miles, the Eden reached Muscat. Their stay in Muscat was
short, the crew of the Eden must have been glad of this, for
September in the Gulf is the worst month of the year. Loch
heard that the pirate fleet had captured some trading vessels down
the coast, so two days later, the Eden was again under weigh in
pursuit of the pirates. Off Barka, a town on the Oman coast,
‘the man at the chains had but time to sing out “shoal water, Sir’’,
when bump! she was on a coral reef’. However, after some time
the ship was extricated from the shoal, and anchored off the town.
During the night there was a total eclipse of the moon.
Next morning, pirate vessels were sighted standing out from
Barka, towing a prize along the coast. The Eden gave chase,
but the wind was ‘light and baffling, and the Edens sailing having
a good deal fallen off, in consequence of our having struck so
often on the ground, we could do no more than give the vessels
a good fright, and force them to destroy their prize, after the
Edens guns had been opened on the sternmost’.
The next port of call was Kishm island, a dependency of Muscat.
The Shaikh, who was given a salute of three guns, came on board
with presents of goats, vegetables and fruit, including pomegran­
ates the size of large oranges, of the fmest flavour and texture
that Loch had ever eaten. At Kishm the ship took on water,
which was of good quality, sweeter than the water which they
obtained elsewhere in the Gulf.
Back in Bushirc, the news was that the pirates, under a truce,
had sent a ‘wakil’ (representative) to discuss with Bruce certain
proposals to be put before the Bombay Government. But on
his way from Ras al Khaima to Bushirc, the pirate wakil, dis-
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