May 1861.] 



Notes on Zanguebar. 



89 



many such examples. Were the Imam not obstinately opposed to 

 the idea of insuring his ships, one might think that he speculated 

 on the bon-hommie or carelessness of the under writers. 



Of all the Imam's fleet, only two ships had afine appearance ; one 

 is the Shah AUum* a frigate pierced for 60 guns, built at Bombay : 

 she has been lying moored at Zanguebar for the last twenty years 

 with nothing but her bare lower masts standing and 24 guns for 

 giving or returning salutes ; the other is the Caroline, a ship of 

 about 800 tons built at Bombay, she went once to America and there 

 was refitted in the dock-yard of the U. S. Navy at Brooklyn, The 

 Nakoodah was told to help himself to every thing he could desire 

 for the equipment of his ship ; and the Arab, thinking it was a 

 present of the American Sultan to his great master, literally loaded 

 the Caroline with all sorts of things useful and useless ; he was 

 however requested to sign an inventory of all the things he had 

 received, and when he came home triumphant fiom his refitting 

 expedition he heard to his great terror that the Yankee Sultan had 

 sent in his bill, — that it was an exceedingly heavy one, and that 

 Said was mad against him, and eventually he had to pay the bill 

 himself. On another occasion a ship of His Highness conveying 

 a few horses as a present to the King of England was obliged to 

 put in to Plymouth in distress ; the ship was refitted and sent back 

 to Zanguebar, but no bill was ever presented to the Imam. It was 

 on this occasion I think, that in answer to an autograph letter of 

 Seyed Said, King William the 4th was graciously pleased to return 

 an autograph of his own, in which the King of England said to the 

 Sultan of Muscat, " Your Highness and myself are the only two 

 sailor Kings in the world." The Imam was delighted with the 

 comparison. 



From what I have said of the mode in which ships are equipped 

 at Zanguebar, the reader will come to the conclusion, that three- 

 quarters of the Imam's ehips are dismantled, and so it is ; they 



* The Shah Allum frigate, after remaining twenty years moored at 

 Zanguebar without a single repair, was sent to Bombay with jury-masts 

 in May 1854 to be completely refitted, there wa3 not when she left a 

 single rag of copper sheeting left at the bottom ; all had been oxidized 



and dissolved. 



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