‘Persian Gulf pilot comprising the Persian Gulf and its approaches from Ras al Hadd, in the south-west, to Cape Monze, in the east.’ [26v] (57/404)
The record is made up of 199 folios. It was created in 1932. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
g general information [Chap. I.
• + K 0 nnrth where Kurdish and Turkish are the vernacular,
areas m the n0 ^ T ' A ^ ic By the census of 1920 the total
the language of Ira VLo 9«9
population was - estimates the population of Persia is just
lOmnfions but all figures are conjectural; that of Mohammerah
50V h ?.r 0 ^ Persian is of course the language of the country,
hufxtk shTnd Turkish dialects are spoken in the north-western
peopirara p^'stapte, Ind primittve ; J hospttable to strangers
and faithful in the performance of duty. They can endure fatigue
and laitniui m u ^ fripTld i v w ith and accustomed to Europeans.
"The toCTage'is a dialect of Persian, and approximates the more
nearly to that tongue as the western frontier is approached, it is
hardly a written language, Persian being generally used m cor
respondence The small seaport towns are chiefly inhabited by
20 Arabs who originally came from the Arabian coast and formed
settlements In the larger places an admixture of Persians is found,
also Banyans from Sind or Kutch, by whom the very limited trade
of the country is chiefly carried on. The rural population is abnos^
exclusively Persian, but Persians do not take to the sea and all
25 craft sailing from Persian ports are
live in mat huts, which are easily moved, so that a village is otten
merely a temporary encampment. In more permanent sett
ments there is a tower or fort in addition to the huts, and it is on y
at the towns of Sonmiani, Ormara and Gwadar ^at masonry or
30 mud houses are found. In 1921, the population of the State of
Kalat, including Makran was 328,281; and that of Las Bela,
0 Supplies.—Products.—Trade .—Basra is the only P ort . in the
area covered by this work, at which all necessaries can ^ obtamed.
35 At other places the supplies are meagre. Fresh water is usua y
both scarce in quantity and bad in quality, though it is better after
the winter rains than at other times.
The great heat of summer is very favourable to the cultivation
of dates, which fruit forms the staple article of food of the inhabitants
40 of most of the coasts described in this work. Those grown near
the Shatt al 'Arab, said to be the finest in the world, are sent to ail
parts of Asia, also to Europe and to America; quantities are also
exported from the Batinah. ^ ,
Probably the two most important products of the Gult are pearls
45 and petroleum; the latter is found at the north-western end of the
Gulf, and refineries have been established by the Anglo -1 ersian
Oil Company at Abadan, in the Shatt al 'Arab, to which place the
oil is conveyed from the fields by pipe line. Oil is also being developed
in 'Iraq, two companies having been granted concessions, and
50 drilling operations for locating oil are taking place at Bahrein.
The principal exports of 'Oman are dates, pomegranates, dried
limes, and dried fish. The imports are rice, coffee, and cotton
piece goods, etc. ,, -i -c. a
The principal exports from Nejd are dates, hides, and ghi (clarified
55 butter); but they are insignificant in quantity. The imports are
piece goods, tea, sugar, coffee, and rice. The products consist
About this item
- Content
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. pilot comprising the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and its approaches, from Ras al Hadd, in the south-west, to Cape Monze, in the east. Published for the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty by His Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, 1932. Eighth edition.
The pilot begins with a number of introductory sections:
- Notice of caution when approaching British ports, including the closure of ports and examination of vessels entering ports (folio 1v, inside front cover);
- Notations of supplements and annual summaries of notices to mariners relating to this book (folio 2);
- Cautionary notes on the measurements, including those for (bearings, longitude, latitude, depth) given in the pilot, and the different methods of shading used to indicate colours of flags, tidal light signals and beacons in the pilot (folio 5);
- Advertisement to the eighth edition (folio 6) providing an outline history of the pilot, and updates to the latest edition;
- Contents page (folios 7v-8), referring to the pilot’s pagination;
- A list of views (illustrations), with reference to the pilot’s pagination (folio 8v);
- A glossary of terms (folio 9), organised alphabetically, and with an indication of their origin (Arabic, Baluchi, Hindustani, Persian);
- Notes on the system of orthography (folios 10-11);
- Information relating to Admiralty charts and other hydrographic publications and general navigation (folios 12-19), with sections on the correction of Admiralty charts, and their degree of reliance, navigational publications, including the Admiralty lists of lights and wireless signals, tide tables, and general remarks relating to practical navigation;
- A map of the head of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , dated July 1932, indicating those areas covered by Admiralty charts (folio 20v);
- A map of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and Gulf of Oman, dated July 1932, with an indication of those areas covered by Admiralty charts mentioned in the pilot (folio 21v);
- An insert (folio 22) detailing those elements not included in the present volume.
The main body of the pilot is arranged in chapters and appendices as follows:
- Chapter 1 - General Remarks: physical features, depths, political and administrative divisions, British representation, ports and anchorages, towns and population, languages, supplies, products, trade, currencies, weights and measures, the pearl fisheries, health, meteorological information (pressure, winds, cyclones and depressions, climate and weather, humidity, rainfall, dew, fog, visibility), currents, tides, tidal streams, signals, communications, pilots, deratisation, native craft, piracy, obtaining information, presents, coal, fuel oil, docks, repairs, standard time, passages;
- Chapter 2 - Approaches to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. from the south; the coasts of Oman, Batinah, and Ash Shamailiyah; Ras Al Hadd to Dibah;
- Chapter 3 - Approaches to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. from the east; the coasts of Las Bela, Makran, Persian Makran, including Jask; Cape Monze to Jask;
- Chapter 4 - Entrance to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; Ruus al Jabal and the Persian coast, including Bandar ’Abbas [Bandar-e ʻAbbās] and Qishm [Kīsh] island; Dibah to Ras Ash Sha’am and Jask to Charack [Bandar-e Chārak];
- Chapter 5 - Northeast side of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; the coast of Persia; Charack to Ras Ash Shatt, including Bushire;
- Chapter 6 - The southwest side of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; the coast of Trucial Oman A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , and the eastern side of Qatar; Ras Ash Sha'am to Ras Rakan;
- Chapter 7 - The southwest side of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; western side of Qatar, Bahrain [referred to as Bahrein throughout], and the coasts of Nejd [Najd] and Kuwait; Ras Rakan to Khor ’Abdullah;
- Chapter 8 - The head of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; coasts of Persia and Iraq; Ras Ash Shatt to and including the Shatt al ’Arab; the Tigris and Euphrates;
- Appendix 1 - List of ports available for underwater repairs, with details of the largest dry or floating dock or patent slip at each port;
- Appendix 2 - List of principal ports, showing the particulars of depth at approach and anchorage, rise of tide;
- Appendix 3 - Meteorological data (air pressure, air temperature, rainfall, wind) - for Muscat, Pasni, Jask, Bushire, Bahrain; Kuwait, Mohammerah [Khorramshahr], Basra;
- Appendix 4 - Places suitable for magnetic observations;
- Appendix 5 - Tidal streams, with tables for four locations, including Henjam, and semi-diurnal and diurnal factors.
Throughout the main chapters there are illustrations of the parts of the coastline being discussed by the accompanying text. These illustrations, which are a mix of line drawing and reproductions of watercolours, indicate the profile of the land, and highlight distinctive topographical features such as trees and forts.
- Extent and format
- 199 folios
- Arrangement
The pilot is arranged into eight chapters (I-VIII) and five appendices (I-V). The arrangement of chapters is geographical, moving from the easternmost point of the Gulf in chapter II to the westermost point in chapter VIII. The contents page (ff 7-8) and alphabetically ascending index (ff 182-93) refer to the pilot’s pagination system.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: There is a foliation sequence, which is circled in pencil, in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio. It begins on the front cover, on number 1, and ends on the inside of the back cover, on number 199.
Pagination: There are two printed pagination systems, which generally situate numbers in the top-left corner of versos and the top-right corner of rectos. The first, which uses Roman numerals, runs through the pilot’s introductory pages (ff 6-19). The second pagination system uses Arabic numerals, and runs through the remainder of the pilot (ff 23-197).
The number of each chapter is indicated throughout the chapter (expressed as ‘Chap.’ and the chapter number as a Roman numeral) in the top-left corner of rectos and the top-right corner of versos. The lines of text on each page in each chapter are numbered in intervals of five (i.e. 5, 10, etc.)
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- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/20/C251
- Title
- ‘Persian Gulf pilot comprising the Persian Gulf and its approaches from Ras al Hadd, in the south-west, to Cape Monze, in the east.’
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:145v, 145ar:145av, 146r:198v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence