"تاريخ البحرية الهندية. (١٦١٣- ١٨٦٣)." [‎٣‎٨‎٧] (٦٢٢/٤٠٦)

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
387
the late Lieutenant J. G. Nixon, and the ' Lady Canning,' under
the late Lieutenant E. Peevor, were very successful in check
ing the slave trade in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf.
Two troop-ships, built in England, the 'Prince Arthur,'of
1 246 tons, and ' Dalhousie,' of 1,022 tons, were added to the
Service in the year 1858, and two gunboats, of 300 tons, and
sixty horse-power, and carrying three guns, were launched at
Bombay, and named the 'Clyde' and 'Hugh Rose.' There
was also a large fifty-gun frigate on the stocks, but it was never
added to the Service.
Encouraged by the Indian Mutiny, a sanguinary outbreak of
Mohammedan fanaticism took place at Jiddah. On the night of
the 7th of June, 1858, some Christians swam on board H.M.S.
'Cyclops,' which, fortunately, happened to be lying in the
harbour, bringing the intelligence that the inhabitants of the
town, in the absence of Namick Pasha, the Governor, who had
senior executive officer, (a) with Mr. Midshipman Dodd, {b) and two boats' crewa
of armed seamen, for the purpose of seizing them. A rapid march of two or
three miles, over the desert under a tropical sun, brought the party to the fort,
and the surprise was so complete that the slave-dealers had not time to remove
their helpless prey. A shot or two were fired on the advancing party from a
6-pounder, planted in the open, which was captured, the Arabs retreating into
tne fort; after a parley, the iron-studded door was thrown open, and a search
being made, over thirty young female slaves were found and marched down to the
beach, and taken on board the c Mahi.' The career of the little schooner was
abruptly brought to a close a few mouths later in this wise. She was chasing a
large suspicious baghalah, to overtake which, as evening was closing in, a press of
sail was carried, while every now and then the ' Mahi' was yawed to fire a shot
from her pivot 32.poimder. But, proverbially, " a stern chase is a long chase,"
and the Arab craft, which was doubtless full of slaves, held on her course at all
hazards. It was now almost dark, and the order was given to take a double
reef in the fore-topsail,(<?) but just as the men were laying out on the topsail-
yard, a sharp crack was heard, and the foremast swayed aft. It was the bow
sprit which had gone short off by the " gammoning," and was now alongside the
ship with all the rigging; the next moment the fore and maintop-masts carried
away, and the foremast was sprung in two places. To lay down from aloft was
the work of a few moments on the part of the foretop-men, who slung themselves
down the backstays without loss of life ; but the chase escaped, and we were left
" re infectd" and almost a wreck, with what sailors call " a dirty night" coming
on. The 1 Mahi' made the best of her way to Berbera Creek, then a solitary
anchorage, where we jury-rigged her and fished her foremast, and then sailed for
Aden, whence she proceeded to Bombay. We relate these incidents in the
career of "a Company's Cruiser," not for their importance, for, either by the
officers of the Service or the public, if they ever knew anything about them,
they were never considered worthy the briefest paragraph in the Bombay papers,
but simply as showing the ordinary nature of the duties fulfilled by the Indian
Navy without record or thanks from Grovernment or any public body.
{a) The brigs' Euphrates' and ' Tigris,' and schooners ' Mahi' and 4 Constance,'
were officered by a lieutenant in command and three midshipmen, who kept all
the watches and performed the duties of lieutenants in larger ships. These
four small craft thus formed not only admirable schools for practical seamanship,
but taught young officers habits of command and self-reliance.
(h) Mr. Midshipman Dodd, a promising young officer, died a few months later
of cholera.
(c) The 4 Mahi' was square-rigged forward, and fore-and-aft-rigged on the
mainmast.
c c 2