"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٦‎٦‎٦] (١٧٨٢/٨٠٩)

666
November
to 2nd
December.
Disembarka
tion, and
siege
»nd capture
of the town,
3rd to 9lh
December.
in water. The 26th and 27th were devoted by Sir W. Grant Keir and
his chief engineer to an examination of the defences of the town : and, as
the result showed that the place might be taken with the force already
available at Qishm, the " Benares " was sent to summon the fleet thence.
The ships arrived on the 2nd of December, followed in the afternoon
by the four last transports, whose arrival—lest a change of
weather should take place—it had been decided not to await; and on
the same day Saiyid Sa'id of Masqat made his appearance with two
frigates and 600 men.
Upon this occasion the landing was effected about 2 miles south uf
the town, and a cordon was immediately formed across the peninsula ;
the 3rd of December passed in these preliminary operations and in
disembarking tents, stores and provisions. It was found that the
old wall across the isthmus had been taken down since 1809, leaving
a bank in its place, and that a fort * had been constructed in the middle
of the isthmus with the materials ; a new wall had also been built,
nearer to the town than the old. Rifle pits had been dug by the enemy
m advance of his position. On the 4th a ridge about 900 yards from
the nearest part of the fortifications was seized by thet " skirmishers
and pickets " of the force, the enemy being driven back upon the fort
and town ; in this engagement Major Moles worth of the 47th ; "a gallant
and zealous officer/' was struck on the head and killed by a shot from
one of the enemies'' guns, the fire of which he had mounted the ridge to
observe. During the following night a battery for four guns was
completed at a distance of 300 yards from the southernmost tower of
Ras-al-K haimah, with a mortar battery on the right of it about 100
yards from the edge of the inner harbour or backwater. On the
6th the town was bombarded, and its defences shaken, by the guns of
the fleet and of the land batteries; the response of the defenders was
feeble, apparently for want of ammunition, for they frequently fired large
stones from their guns and darted out, between the discharges of the
British artillery, to collect round-shot which had lodged outside the
walls. On the night of the 6th, under cover of unusual darkness, the
Arabs made a stealthy sortie ; and the British mortar battery on the
right was actually in their possession for a short time, during which they
succeeded in removing a howitzer to a distance of about 100 yards;
* The fort, which was 350 paces from the new town wall, was a quadrangular stone
building of much more solid cunstractioii than any ever before seen in the Persian
Gulf. (Regimental Records of the 65th Foot.)
t Viz., all the light companies of the force (5| in number) under,Captain Backhousa
of the 47th, followed by pickets under Major Aloleswortb of the same regiment.
■SCKHB
*0,