Memoir of the Career of Thomas Edward Rogers [‎41r] (81/118)

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a stiff wind and heavy seas. There was no cabin and the open deck pitched and
rolled alarmingly. I tried to tempt sleep with a narcotic peg or two of
Persian vodka, stretched myself out on my bedding-roll and dozed off from
time to time. At one sudden lurch I opened my eyes to see the Arab captain
swaying and falling over as he tried desperately to put his forehead on the
pitching deck in prayer. Confused, I thought we were in serious trouble. Then
I suddenly realised that I was seeing for the first time a devout Muslim
performing the fifth prayer of the twenty four hours - that prescribed for the
"time of darkness". Our rough passage persisted until next morning when the
'to
weather improved and we put in tired but much relieved aa Dubai.
Once in the wide waters between Chahbar and Muscat I was looking suspiciously
through my glasses at a dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. following a rather irregular course in our general
direction from the east. Eventually it turned sharply towards us and an Indian
came out on deck. Astonishingly he hailed us with a loud shout of "Mr Rogers,
I presume". It was a similarly innocent-looking dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. to mine apparently engaged
in normal trade but in fact being used by the Royal Indian Navy to observe
shipping entering and leaving the Gulf. An enemy submarine which would not
surface with a naval sloop in the vicinity might do so within distant sight of
an apparently harmless dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. and be reported. Our encounter was presumably around
the westward limit of the R.I.N. dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. 's patrol from Karachi and I was delighted to
have this unobserved chance opportunity to exchange information.
Comments from official reports which I read years later on the Political
Service's activities in the Gulf fill out my own impressions. For example, the
Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. wrote: "In the absence of any ship both I and my officers have
been obliged to make a number of dangerous and highly uncomfortable journeys by
launch which so far as I know do not fall to the lot of civilian officers in any