Page 49 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

and Indian ships, the Bombay Government realised that unless
they took action, they would lose their trade in the Gulf. The
pirate fleet was estimated at this time to consist of over sixty large
ships and several hundred smaller vessels manned by about 20,000
men. Many of their ships were armed with guns taken from
captured vessels, but the pirates were not very efficient in their
use. The Government, though still determined to avoid conflict
with the Wahabis, decided to send an expedition against the Pirate
Coast to give support to the hard-pressed Sultan of Muscat. The
orders to the commander of the expedition were carefully framed
to ensure that only the Joasmi should be attacked, though they
were acting in concert with the Wahabis.
The expedition sailed from Bombay in September 1809, under
the command of Colonel Lionel Smith of the 65th Regiment,
whose father was a director of the East India Company. He was
a distinguished soldier, who afterwards became Governor-General
of Jamaica, where he took a prominent part in the emancipation
of the slaves: later he was made Governor of Mauritius. The
force consisted of about 1,000 men of the 65 th and 47th regiments,
a detachment of Bombay Artillery, and 1,000 Indian troops.
There were eight of the Company’s ships, four transports, and
two Royal Navy frigates. Their departure from Bombay was
inauspicious for, outside the harbour, one of the ships which was
loaded with ‘bombs and shells’, sank with the loss of many lives.
According to Buckingham, the ship had been previously con­
demned as unfit for service.
In Muscat, the Sultan had been preparing his ships and forces
to co-operate with the British, though no-one was told the reason
for his preparations. When, after a long voyage, the squadron
reached Muscat, ‘the city was filled with joy’. Counting on the
support of the British, the Sultan then declared himself against
the Wahabis, and expelled their representative from Muscat.
After some delay at Muscat, which gave the pirates time to put
their defences in order, the squadron set sail, and the Sultan and
his ship, the Sally, went down the coast to Barka where several
thousand troops, and a number of ships were in readiness. Maur-
izi, his Italian doctor, who was with him, describes how, at Barka
they had a meal in the room in the castle where, three years before,
the Sultan had stabbed his cousin, Bedr, who was then his rival to
the Sultanate.
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