Gun-running in Arabia

[Royal Navy - Arabian Gulf]. [Manuscript journal of a Roval Navy officer]. Lett's Indian and Colonial Diary and Almanac for 1908 [...].

€ 4,500.00

Personal diary of a Royal Navy officer aboard SS Amatonga, one of several British ships patrolling the Gulf in an attempt to stop arms trafficking. Packed with lively accounts of operations against gun-runners off the coasts of Iran and Oman, recounting seven months at sea: parting from Bombay on 15 February 1908 bound for the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; anchorages including Kish and Kharg islands off the coast of Iran, Kuwait, Bushire, Hengam island, the Makran coast, Mascat, Kuh-e Mubarak, Sheikh Shoeyb, and Jaskh. The diary mentions other patrol boats such as HMS Hyacinth and HMS Sphinx and describes the dangers of chasing and inspecting dhows for illegal weapons, not failing to report dramatically the deaths of Able Seamen H. H. Biddlecombe and F. G. King, who were fatally wounded in action on 20 April on the shores of Bunji village: "On the way to the boat Biddlecombe (AS) was hit in the right buttock the bullet leaving through the abdomen, just below the navel, where in the boat & pulling off F. King AS was shot through the shoulder the Bullet passing through the left lung & under the heart remaining inside him. We kept up a heavy fire on the palm grove & village of Bungi, until the boats were out of range from the shore [...]".

The journal further revolves around cricket and bridge tournaments, poker games, dances, pigeon hunting and the weather; a remark in the cash account section gives an idea of the splendid time the crew had in India prior to departure: "Expenditure so enormous account keeping impossible combined with high life in Bombay".

The rapid development in the design of small arms in the 19th century flooded the private arms market with surplus old weapons destined for the dissident tribes of Arabia and the North West Frontier. Britain attempted to slow the trade to protect their interests and the route to India by instigating anti-smuggling patrols in the Arabian Gulf beginning in 1907. The trade continued until the outbreak of the First World War.