'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎23] (42/622)

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
23
4 Elphinstone' received no salvage, or pecuniary emoluments,
whereas had they been in the Royal Service they would have
been entitled to one-third of the value of the captured vessels
and property as prize money.
The engagements entered into by Sheikh Sbakboot, the
father and accredited agent of the Beni Yas chief, for the
gradual liquidation of the amount of the claims remaining
unadjusted, were confirmed by his son, and subsequently
strictly fulfilled. The surrendered pirate commanders were
taken to Bombay in the 6 Elphin stone,' and, on the 6th of
December, 1835, Mahomed bin Suggur was tried in the Supreme
Court, before Sir John Awdry, for piracy in seizing on the high
seas, on the 25th of March, 1835, the baghalah 4 Deriah Dowlut,
having on board one hundred and thirty-five souls, and plunder
ing her of goods to the value of 2,000 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. . 1 he chief was
found guilty and condemned to death; but a point of law being
raised, the sentence was subsequently commuted to transporta
tion for life. As Lieutenant Wellsted, of the Indian Navy, in
referring to this punishment, remarks, in his Travels, u The
first part of this affair was intelligible enough to the several
tribes along the coast, for we had no repetition of such attempts,
but the sentence, w r hich was carried into effect, puzzled them
sorely ; and, during my travels, I was repeately warned not to
venture too near to, or within the territories of this tribe, as
they had threatened to retaliate by boiling in oil the first
European they could lay hands on."
The other pirate chief, Mahomed bin Majid, against whom,
unfortunately, no prosecution could be maintained, w 7 as returned
to be handed over a prisoner to Sheikh Sultan bin Suggur,
to whom was left the infliction of adequate punishment.
The prisoner, however, effected his escape by swimming,
nnobserved, from the vessel in which he was being conveyed,
and succeeded in reaching the shore, off Sharjah, distant about
four miles.
In the Report of the Finance Committee of 1829-30, already
referred to, and in Lord William Bentinck's Minute of 1834,
the efficiency of the Indian Navy, and the ability of the small
cruisers to keep in check the piratical Arab tribes of the Persian
Gulf, were called seriously in question; but the action with
the Beni Yas conclusively proved the fallacy of the accusation.
The history of the Service, from the year 1797,^ when the
Joasmis committed their first open act of aggression against
the British flag, by making a sudden attack on the Company s
cruiser ' Viper,' in Bushire Roads, showed that even the small
vessels of those days were more than a match for a pirate of
the largest size known in the Gulf, and the capture of the little
schooner 4 Sylph,' by a Joasmi squadron, was solely due to the
instructions of the Bombay Government, by which the hands