"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٥‎١] (١٧٨٢/٣٩٤)

— , * aiM " r '' 1
vM''
261
British marine surveys in the Persian Gulf, 1861-73.
The abolition of the Indian Navy caused the same lamentable disorgani- Total discon-
sation in the matter of marine surveys as in that of naval arrangements in Inarhie snr-
the Persian Gulf.
It appears to have been deemed a natural corollary of the placing of
India under the Crown in 1858, as well as of the subsequent abolition of
the Indian Navy, that the hydrographical work of the Indian Government
should be transferred to the British Admiralty,—the India Office and the
Government of India being retained, however, as media of communication
and control in matters of importance. Some action seems to have been
taken with this view in 1861, but it is not clear that the Admiralty were
ever informed of the decision that in future the surveys of the Indian
seas would be conducted by the Royal Navy at the expense of the Imperial
Government," though in 1862 the Admiralty Hydrographer was supplied
with a memorandum by Captain Constable and three other leading-
surveyors of the Indian Navy on the state of the Indian marine surveys
and a list of such as required to be undertaken. It was shown that large
scale plans of Masirah Island and Straits (made in 184-6), of Khor-al-
Jaramah, Bandar Khairan, and Bandar Jissah (made in 1848-49), of
Bushehr harbour (made in 1857), and of the Daimaniyat Islands (made
in 1858) had not been published. There was no survey of the Shatt-al-
'Arab, and the chart of its entrance from these a was old and inaccurate.
Outer soundings of the Makran coast were wanting. In the result,
during the following ten years, no fresh surveys were undertaken, and
many original drawings and memoirs, the fruit of expensive surveys, were
lost.
In 1871 the Government of Bombay, having awakened to the necessity
for new surveys, consulted Colonel Pelly, the Political Resident in the
Persian Gulf, and Colonel Herbert, the Political Agent in Turkish'Iraq;
and a general discussion of the subject was initiated. Both officers drew
attention to the desirability of surveys being made of Kuwait harbour and
Khor 'Abdullah, with reference to the contingency, which then appeared
not remote, of a railway port being required in that quarter; and the
Resident in tlie Persian Gulf also dwelt on the need of a revision of the
Persian Gulf charts in certain places. The upshot was that Mr. Girdle-
stone, formerly a midshipman in the Indian Navy, was deputed to the
Resumption
of survey
work, 1871.