'File 4/1 General Information regarding Kuwait and Hinterland' [‎132r] (263/474)

Private letter from Lt-Col..+ore,
to Co .mander Yau^han, Secretary to c nior
Paval Officer, Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
I am returning your ’’Last Lays of Past & Sail”
with very many thanks. I have engoyed it immensely,
particularly the chapter on the Lateen Sail. It is a
great pity that the author was never up the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ,
as there are some most interesting types of ^rab craft
to be seen here, and he has had to rely largely on
herarsay.
I do not know, for example, whether t&ere is really
s , much difference between the Pambuk or Sambuq to give
it a preferable spelling, of the Red Sea and that of the
Gulf as one T'ould imagine from this book. I personally
would not call any of the three boats shown on page 125
a true sambuq , whereas that shown in the Arab drawing
facing page 122 obviously is. nrab boats which are for
all practical purposes exactly the same but differ in
some trivial detail o"ten have different names, and I
would not accept the three boats on page 125 as samhugs
without corroboration from the ^rab.
Very few of the definitions of boats on the bottom
of page 122 and the top of page 125 would I accept, but
they are avowedly not his own.
As you are interested in this sort of thing, I am
giving you a few notes on the different kinds of boats
to bemet with in this part of the world, which may help
you to identify the different types, and tell you what
you should look out for if you want to get distinctive
photos of them.
A considerable change has been introduced in the
types of ocean going crai't built in kuwait and elsewhere
during the last 35 years or so. Formerly all the
largest VEfcfcsifci vessels were of the square sterned type,
known as baghalah . Low, however, the largest vessels
built are without exception bums . It is claimed for the
bam (which type was formerly confined to boats of from
20 to 50 tons) that, v/ith its po nted stern, it is a
better sea boat, particularly in a following sea; and
also that it has better cargo space.
The bum is now the most commonly used type of
vessel in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. - at any rate at the top part
of it. It is of various sizes,from the harbour lighter
of Ku ait to a ship of over 500 tons carrying capacity.
It uuaally has two m sts but some of the largest have 3.
It is distinguished by its sharp stern, and its long
straight stem head, the end of which is usually black
with a white ring.
Very similar to the bum is the dangiyah , an
Indian built vessel occasionally seen in the upper part
of the Gulf. For practical purposes it is exactly ali e
the larger type of bum, but its stem head resembles that
of a shu T ai. Being an Indian boat too, it not unfrecuently
is brightly painted instead of being oiled.
The balam also closely resembles a bum of the
smaller type, xcept that its stem head is si ply cut off
flush with less of a point than that shown on page 137 of
the book. There is moreover not: ing peculiar about its
steering gear. The balam (or to give it its full name,
balam nassari , to distinguish it from the : Im. a:Lari
seen in Basra) is always Iraq o ,r ned but plies as far as
Kuwait. The b&ghlah is a large vessel, able to carry from
80 to 300 tons of cargo. There is formerly said to have
been a 500 ton baghla in the Gulf, but there is no ^rab
vessel of that size afloat now.