Page 194 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

with two ropes, one weighed by a stone, which they release when
they reach the bottom. Their nostrils arc closed with a clip like
a elothes-peg, their fingers and big toes arc protected with leather
sheaths, and they wear string bags round their necks, in which
they put the shells. A man collects six or eight shells at each dive;
when lie wants to come up, he signals by a jerk of the rope, and
his mate on board the dhow hauls him to the surface. Diving is
carried out in relays and divers do not stay below for much more
than a minute. Loch’s statement that divers stay submerged ‘for
five or six minutes’, indicates that he did not himself see diving in
progress. The oyster shells arc heaped on the deck, and opened
next morning before the day’s diving begins, so no diver knows
whether the pearls which arc found were in his catch, or in some
other diver’s catch. Diving is a tough occupation, but not as
unhealthy as many people suppose. Divers expected to make
enough in the season, which lasts for four-and-a-half months in
the summer, to enable them to live during the rest of the year
without working, and there was always the chance of a big catch
which would fill their pockets for some years to come. Arabs
have an inclination towards gambling, and it is this which
attracted them to the diving industry.
One of the unforgettable sights in Bahrain used to be the
departure of the pearl fleet from Muharraq. With a favourable
wind, the big pearling dhows moved out to sea under their great
lateen sails or, on a still day, they were propelled by their enor­
mous oars, each pulled by two men. Today the few pearling
dhows which remain, have auxiliary oil engines. In Loch’s time,
the Shaikh used to provide some of his ‘vessels of war’, to guard
the fleet during the season. For this service, the Shaikh levied a
tax which brought him about £10,000 a year, but, as Loch says,
‘in addition to this, there were many extortions’. In later years,
ships of the British Navy patrolled the neighbourhood of the
pearl banks, some of which were forty miles from Bahrain.
There was never a regular pearl market in Bahrain; the mer­
chants did their business in coffee shops, or in their own houses.
After changing hands several times most of the pearls were sent
to Bombay and, in later days, from Bombay to Europe and
America. Now, there are several shops in Bahrain where pearls
and necklaces can be bought over the counter as in a jewellers’
shop in Europe.
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