IOR/R/15/1/143, ff 206-211

The letter concerns the running aground and plunder of a ship off the Muscat coast. Kemball writes that he has received a report from the Native Agent at Muscat, informing him that a vessel (the Fath-el-Khyer) bound from Bombay to Muscat, carrying 200 tonnes of coal, ran aground off Joweih ben Boo Ali near Khabbah on the Oman coast. The vessel was subsequently surrounded by a large number of natives who prevented the crew from refloating their boat, and eventually forced the crew to abandon the boat and its cargo. Kemball writes that he has written to the Imam of Muscat, Syed Soweynee [Thuwaynī bin Sa‘id], though he acknowledges that the Imam has little authority over the coastal tribes nominally under his control. The remainder of Kemball’s letter discusses the resources of the Persian Gulf squadron in relation to the patrol of the shallow waters of the Oman coast, and the attitude of the tribes that live there.

There are two enclosures included with Kemball’s letter:

1. Two translated extracts of letters (folios 209-10) from Khojeh Hiskael, the British Agent at Muscat, to Kemball, dated 15 March 1854 and 28 March respectively. Hiskael’s letters provides fuller details of the circumstances and events of the shipwreck and plunder;

2. The translation of a letter (folio 211) from Kemball to Thuwaynī bin Sa‘id, the Governor [Imam] of Muscat, dated 24 April 1854. Kemball reports the shipwreck incident to Thuwaynī bin Sa‘id, stating that, given the incident has occurred two years after the previous case of shipwreck along the Oman coast (the Centaur in 1852), he fears that the coastal tribes have become ‘emboldened’ in their attitude to grounded ships. Kemball hopes that the Imam will agree with him in that a ‘strong remonstrance’ should be sent to the Governor of Soor [Sur], who is deemed to be responsible for the stretch of coast where the shipwreck occurred.