THE PERSIAN GULF I 59 



marked by a stone beacon long since fallen into decay, and used 

 for centuries past by the trading dhows and vessels sailing to the 

 pearling banks, permitted the entry of the ship with only a foot 

 or so of water below her keel. The letter was carried to the 

 Sheikh in his cool dark quarters in the towoi and to it he gave 

 a verbal and unenthusiastic acknowledgment. 



Next day the ship sailed southward and anchored off the Fasht 

 al Arrif reef to appraise the situation and commence the work 

 which would prove whether or not there was access for shipping 

 to this place, otherwise so well suited to become the oilport of 

 Qatar. 



The unsurveyed sand dunes of this desolate place stretched away 

 to the westward like waves of the sea ; to seaward patches of blue 

 and light green water showed the complexity of the work in 

 hand. The low, bare island of Al Bushirya was to be the site of 

 the base and the starting point for a triangulation which was, 

 during the next five years, to be carried right up the east coast 

 of Qatar, around the end of the peninsula to Fort Zubara, and 

 thence across the shallow reefs to the Island of Bahrein, where it 

 would close on a position, long since fixed by an earlier surveying 

 vessel, in the garden of the Political Agent in the town of Manama. 

 However, in December, 1946, that day of closure was very far 

 distant, and by the time this was achieved other more modern 

 vessels would have taken over the task from Challenger. But 

 thoughts onboard were on the job in hand and the little recreation 

 that was available to officers and men. 



Sam Southern was an enthusiastic fisherman and at the week- 

 ends he usually went off on an expedition with a small party of 

 officers to the Hat Islands, which lay to the southward, girdled 

 by steep-sided coral reefs, along the edge of which the motor skiff 

 slowly made her way as the fishermen trolled over her stern with 

 home-made lures. The Engineer Officer was always encouraged to 

 come upon these trips, for motor skiffs are temperamental things 

 and a fishing party lost much of its pleasure if the fishermen spent 

 the heat of the day churning the starting handle instead of 

 watching their lines trailing into the green waters astern. Often 

 the catches were good but sometimes the biggest fish were at- 

 tacked even while they were being played on the line and a huge 



