Page 200 - The Tigris Expedition

We Gain Control of Tigris
came around the mountains with redoubled force, and the swells
rose bigger and wilder, as if to take revenge for our attempt to
escape their grip. We began to feel the steering bridge wobble as the
ropes stretched and the many pieces of wood became loosened in
their joints, where bound together or lashed to the reeds. The
orchestration of crashing seas and grinding superstructure again
became deafening. The thick hardwood block serving as a fork for
the port-side rudder-oar split; it first began to gape and snap at our
bare feet, and then threatened to come all apart and let loose the
thick oar-shaft that would hammer the whole stern to pieces. Carlo
was straightaway on the spot like a cowboy with his lasso, and with
Yuri’s help the gaping block was noosed and trapped motionless
inside a network of rope. All the wriggling parts of the rebellious
framework on the stern gradually fell quiet like passive prisoners. In
our battle with the seas during recent days neither reeds nor
palm-stalks had been damaged or lost, but two broad hardwood
boards we had tried to lower at our side to reduce leeway broke at
mid-length like chocolate bars. Our growing agony was the disap­
pearance of Rashad and the dhow. The compact bundles of Tigris
gave us a feeling ofcomplcte security in any sea. But how would the
old dhow take this weather? The night fell on us again.
Our own immediate concern was the jungle of red flares block­
ing the road ahead and growing in threatening magnitude as we
approached, as if we were heading for a battlefield. As the black
night sky began to fade towards dawn, so did the intensity of the
flares, but we knew they were there and the chart showed a vast area
closed to all traffic due to oil installations. We had to steer north of it
into a narrow passage between another oilfield and an island
surrounded by reefs. North of all this again was the main shipping
lane, which we had to avoid at all costs.
We entered the problem area shortly after midnight, when we
first saw flashes from several lighthouses and then the contours of
an island with a big burning flare that came up close to our
starboard side. We were making terrific speed, and at that time
could still see a small top lantern and red running light in front of us
which might well have been from the dhow. With a defective
engine it could not possibly go very much faster than ourselves,
with a strong wind that turned increasingly in our favour. As I was
called to take over my night watch at 2 a.m. I was surprised to find
Norman’s berth empty; it was not his watch yet, but I heard his
voice on the bridge. Dctlefwas sound asleep, convinced like me that
steering involved no problem with this good wind and the light-
171