IOR/R/15/1/89

The file contains correspondence and other papers received by the Residency in the Persian Gulf during 1840. The principal correspondents are Commodore George Barnes Brucks, Commanding the Naval Squadron in the Persian Gulf, Commander Anthony H Nott of the Honourable Company’s Brigantine Tigris, and Captain Atkins Hamerton, Political Agent at Muscat from May 1840.

Key subjects covered by the correspondence are:

• Captain Hamerton’s reconnaissance to Bryeemee [Al Buraymī] in January 1840. This includes diary entries for the period 27 November 1839 to 6 January 1840, covering Hamerton’s preparations for his trip at Sharjah (folios 1-10), and a report on Hamerton’s trip to Sharjah, Al Buraymī and Saha [Sohar?], containing descriptions of Al Buraymī, its fort, defences, population, resources, communications (folios 28-39);
• Discussions between British officials and naval officers relating to the mooring of vessels in the Bushire roads, the recruitment of pilots at Karrack [Jazīreh-ye Khārk] and rates of pay for pilots;
• Affairs and incidents at Bahrain (spelt Bahrein throughout) and the Arab coast, reported by Brucks;
• Correspondence from Hamerton, now in his post as Consul and Political Agent at Muscat, on proposals for cooperation between the British fleet in the Persian Gulf, and the Imam of Muscat’s [Sa‘id bin Sulṭān] fleet, including a description of the Sa‘id bin Sulṭān’s fleet (folios 48-51);
• Correspondence relating to the slave trade in the Persian Gulf, including ‘reports of guard’, forwarded by Commander Nott of the Tigris, containing details of the slave found on vessels flying under the Muscat or Arab flag, with details of the numbers of slaves found, gender and age, their origins, price, the duty paid on them, and profits made from the slave trade at Muscat, Bushire and Bussorah [Basra] (folios 80, 86-90, 100-06).