"تاريخ البحرية الهندية. (١٦١٣- ١٨٦٣)." [‎٤‎١‎٢] (٦٢٢/٤٣١)

412
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
the coramand of officers of the late Indian Navy who had taken
service in the newly-constituted Bombay Marine. The steamers
also formerly belonged to the Service, with the exception of the
'Amber-witch/ which had been purchased at Liverpool for
Government by Lieutenant Stiffe, and fitted out in London,
under the supervision of that scientific officer, with every
essential for a telegraph ship, and has since been permanently
stationed on the line. Among the sailing ships employed in
the Expedition, were the 'Punjaub' (re-christened the 4 Tweed')
and the 'Assaye,' so closely identified, like the steamers 4 Se-
miramis,' 'Zenobia,' and 4 Victoria,' with some glorious pas
sages in the history of the old Service. Both these beautiful
vessels had been converted into sailing ships, and nothing
afloat could equal them for speed; but, unfortunately, the
4 Assaye' was lost on the Irish coast on her voyage home from
the Gulf.
The Expedition sailed from Bombay on the 21st of
January, 1864, with the exception of the 'Amberwitch'
and the sailing ships 4 Tweed,' 4 Assaye,' and 4 Cospatrick,'
which had not yet arrived from England with the Per
sian Gulf section of the line, the naval conduct of the
squadron being under Lieutenant Carew of the k Coromandel,'
which, as the head-quarter ship, conveyed the Director-General,
Colonel Patrick Stewart, of the Bengal Engineers, a man of
commanding talent. Sir Charles Bright, the engineer in charge,
and the staff. The shore end of the cable was first laid at
Guadur Bay, on the Mekran coast, and thence taken to Kas
Mussendom and Bushire, where repeating stations were esta
blished. The cable, which was paid out by the sailing vessels,
towed by the steamers, was landed at Fao, near Bussorah,
on the Shatt-ul-Arab, whence it w 7 as brought into communica
tion with the Persian line to Bagdad, Mosul, and Constan
tinople. On the 14th of April, the principal officers of the
Expedition proceeded to Bagdad in the 4 Comet,' commanded
by the late Lieutenant Bewsher, LN., and in May, the work of
laying the cable being complete, the Expedition returned to
Bombay, when Lieutenant Carew, and the other commanding
stores for the Persian land-line, which sailed on the 27th of December, and
embarking Colonel Desborough at Muscat, landed him at Elphinstone s Inlet,
near Cape Mussendom, the island at the end of which was afterwards used as a
station, the ' Clyde' being stationed there for its protection. A strange circum
stance occurred as the 'Dalhousie' was nearing Kooe Mubarrek, at the entrance
of the Gulf, at night time ; all the compasses commenced swinging, and some
actually revolving, which continued for some hours, the steadiest being a com
pass Lieutenant Morland had on his watch-chain. Besides the officers of the late
Indian Navy,, mentioned above as being employed in the Gulf at this time, Mr.
Midshipman E. Nicholson was employed on shore on the Mekran coast, and
Lieutenant Warner (w r ho recently died at Bagdad) commanded the schooner
4 Georgiana,' which was employed under the order of Colonel Pelly, the Politica
Resident at Bushire.