A busy, shallow harbour crowded with small coastal craft working grain and pilgrim routes up to Jeddah and Yanbu — none of them fit to cross an ocean.
Description
A busy, shallow harbour crowded with small coastal craft working grain and pilgrim routes up to Jeddah and Yanbu — none of them fit to cross an ocean. Military activity dominates the quays. The two soundest hulls in the bay were already under charter to the Pasha’s commissariat and unavailable at any price.
Notable Features
- The Pasha’s commissariat holds first claim on anything seaworthy. A column of Ottoman soldiers can be on a newly arrived hull within the hour of her masts entering the bay.
- A language wall. Holt spent a day here and came back with nothing: the soldiers stationed on the quays had no naval knowledge, and nobody who did had any English.
- Arrivals are visible from the water. Tall masts entering the bay at dawn are seen by anyone awake and watching, which is precisely how the party beat the soldiers to the gangplank.
Connections
- Nathaniel Holt surveyed it on the party’s first day in Suez and found no viable vessel.
- The Shah Alam came in at dawn the following morning and was chartered here by Adrien de Montferrand, Nathaniel Holt and Elizabeth Ashby from Captain Aratoon.
Appearances
Relationships
- Part of Suez — The town's harbour