Page 135 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

Moffath’s command, to proceed to the inner anchorage where he
would meet them. He hurried to die harbour, alone, and gave
orders to MofFath to board the Dubai vessel and take possession
of it. Immediately he was surrounded by an angry crowd of
men, among them was Shaikh Abdul Rasool, who threatened
him with violence unless he countermanded his orders. By this
time, Adey the interpreter had joined him. ‘Of course, the only
answer which 1 could give was that I was doing my duty, and I
refused to comply with their demands.’ By now the sailors had
taken possession of the ship. Loch told the Shaikh that ‘if he
permitted the slightest insult, far less any injury to be offered, most
severe retaliation and vengeance would ensue’. He threatened
to complain to the Government of Persia as well as to the Bombay
Government, and should it be thought that he had acted wrongly,
he would take the blame.
The Shaikh seems to have realised that lie would get into
trouble if lie obstructed Loch, so he invited him into the caravan-
sarai which was on the shore of the harbour. They were followed
by a mob, but the Shaikh ordered the big doors to be closed. He
and Loch had a long conversation; Shaikh Abdul Rasool said that
it was not Loch’s seizure of the vessel that angered him, but the
fact that Loch had ordered its capture in his harbour, in sight of
all his people. Loch then accused him of trying to help the pirates
to escape, pointing out that to do so was against his own interests,
as the pirates preyed on the trading vessels of Bushirc, and were
as much the Shaikh’s enemies as the enemies of the British.
Finally, Loch walked out of the caravansarai back to the Resi­
dency, as if nothing had happened, ‘receiving neither molestation
or insult’. The matter was reported to Bombay, but it was never
again referred to by the Shaikh. After this affair, Loch and
Shaikh Abdul Rasool became on good terms. Shortly after­
wards, during one of the Moslem festivals, Shaikh Abdul Rasool
gave a dinner party for Loch, Bruce, and the ship’s officers, to
demonstrate that all was now peace and happiness.
The dinner was in the Shaikh’s ‘palace’ in a long narrow room,
running the whole length of the building. Rooms were narrow
because roofs were carried on palm trunks, which were not strong
enough to bear any great span. It is only during the last forty
years that timber beams, and latterly, steel beams have been used
in the construction of Arab houses in the Gulf. The meal was
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