Page 73 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

began questioning the crew. Then someone on board saw one
of the men from the fishing boat in the cutter and ‘immediately a
club was raised to knock down the nearest seaman’. But the
blow was warded off. Adey then, in spite of orders, seized a
musket and was in the act of presenting it, when Dent knocked
it out of his hands, ‘preventing what must have been terminated
in much useless bloodshed, for the signal of a musket shot would
have signified that the vessels were pirates, and the ship’s boats
would have been despatched, and not recalled until destruction
had been completed’.
The cutter returned to the Eden without any attack having been
made on her, and Dent reported that the vessels were not pirates.
She was again despatched to the harbour, this time in charge of
‘old Moffath’, with Adey, carrying with them silver-handled
knives and bales of cloth, gifts for the Shaikh of Ambah. These
were presented to him, and at the same time, he again assured the
officers that the ships which were sheltering in his harbour were
trading vessels which had gathered together to defend themselves
from an attack by pirates. As a parting gift, the Shaikh gave the
officers some sheep and goats and thoughtfully provided a supply
of fodder for the animals to feed on. The cutter returned, the
boats were hoisted up, and the Eden sailed, both officers and men
disappointed at the peaceful ending of what they had thought was
to be their first brush with the pirates.
Four days later, the Eden anchored off a shoal consisting of a
long spit of white sand frequented by turtles, which Loch names
‘Astola’. Here she found the cruiser Psyche, who accompanied
her to Muscat. Parties of men and officers went ashore to hunt
turtles. The method employed was to creep up to a sleeping
turtle, if possible without waking it, and to push a strong spar
under one side of it, using the spar as a lever to turn it over. Once
on its back, the turtle was helpless. To chase a turtle and to catch
it before it reached the sea was less easy, for the great unwieldy
creatures had quite a turn of speed and could move rapidly when
pursued. As they scurried towards the water, they scattered
stones and sand with their flippers in the faces of the men who
chased them. Many of the seamen ‘had their faces peppered with
stones and sand, and afterwards suffered from the effects of this
peppering’. During the day, the Edens crew succeeded in catch-
ing eight turtles, each one weighing about 150 pounds. They
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