Page 72 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

walls and towers. Owing to the darkness, and because the Arabs
were dancing and beating drums, Moffath had been able to ap­
proach close to the vessels without being seen. There were no
means of distinguishing pirate ships from Arab traders. Both
used vessels of the same type and most of the ships were armed;
the traders, when they could, carried guns to defend themselves
against the pirates. Only one man in the Eden had been in the
Gulf before - he was Lieutenant Dent, who had served with
Commander Brydges: nobody else had the slightest knowledge
of what the pirates or their ships looked like. However, it was
assumed that the ships which were assembled in the harbour at
Ambah were probably pirates.
The anchor was ‘tossed up’. Decks were cleared for action,
and the ship was kept under ‘easy sail*. At daybreak the weather
was fine, with ‘light airs off the land’, and the Eden found herself
drifting towards the coast. Dent, who was sent in the cutter to
do some sounding (for no details of this coast were shown on the
charts), reported that it was too shallow for the ship to move
farther in.
Before midday, a small dhow of about 20 tons with a crew of
ten men was intercepted and boarded. The men in the boat said
that they were fishermen, but they were taken on board the Eden
and held as hostages. No reliable information was obtained from
them about the vessels which were congregated in the harbour.
‘I could not be certain as to what the vessels were’, says Loch.
‘Had I known that these were pirate vessels there would have been
but one question to solve, which was how to destroy them.’ He
had been told that it was the practice of peaceful vessels to collect
together for protection against attacks by pirates or by hostile
Arab tribes but, he knew too, that the pirates were in the habit of
massing together when they contemplated a raid.
Eventually, Loch sent Dent with Adey, the interpreter, and
some of the men from the fishing boat, in the cutter to parley
with the crews of the ships. Dent was told to ‘explain who and
what we were, and our object, and to be satisfied as to what the
vessels were*. It was a dangerous little expedition. Strict orders
were given not on any account to commence hostilities, but if
they were attacked, the rest of the Edens boats, which were
manned and ready to start immediately, would come to the rescue.
The cutter went alongside one of the ships and the interpreter
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