Guano
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The extraction of guano from the island of Nauru in the Pacific is quite well known. It may come as a surprise to read that the Settlement of Aden once controlled huge deposits of guano on the Kuria Muria Islands. There are five small islands in the group which lies off the coast of present-day Oman. In 1854 the islands belonged to the Sultan of Muscat and in that year they were ceded as a gift to the British government so that a cable relay station could be installed there as the last link in the chain that was being laid to link England with India. Kuria Muria was to be the final link between Aden and Karachi. Although the islands were technically under Aden their proximity to Oman meant that it was more convenient to place them under the charge of the Resident in Muscat.
The guano deposits were then found and in the six years 1855-1860 there was a huge speculation in the trade of this incredible fertilizer. During this period over 200,000 tons were taken away. At one stage there were reported to be over 50 ships there at any one time. One can only assume that stocks were then exhausted as one hears no more of the exporting of guano. The cable relay station was closed in 1862 when the undersea link failed; by then better cable was available which did not require so many landfalls and the relay station on the Kuria Muria islands became redundant (as did, for instance, the one at Port Sudan in the Red Sea).
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The guano trade did have one serious knock-on effect in Aden. Luke Thomas was the agent for P&O in Aden, the latter having the contract to carry mails by steamer to and from India on a regular basis – from Suez to Bombay (and vice versa) on a weekly basis and likewise to Calcutta fortnightly. By 1856 the mail steamers were needing to take on at Aden 40,000 tons of coal annually. It had been found from experience, to allow for defaults by contractors, delays to colliers [that had to come via the Cape] and other contingencies that the lowest safe stock to be held in all Indian Agencies should be not less than 10 months supply, but at Aden, due to exceptional circumstances this should be 12 months, i.e. 40,000 tons.
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One part of the problem was the lack of space at Aden for storing coal. The area allocated to P&O, part of which was on reclaimed land, the cost of which had been borne by that company, was only sufficient to store 18,000 tons.
What was being referred to in contemporary documents as The Guano Speculation had exacerbated the situation as shipping agents in the UK were sending out large additional stocks of coal without having first ascertained that coaling agents in Aden, and Luke Thomas in particular, had sufficient coaling ground.
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The matter came to a head in August 1857 when Luke Thomas wrote to the Resident that he had 14 colliers in port, of which the six that were unloading a total of 7,118 tons would, with close packing, completely fill the ground allocated to him. There was no room whatsoever for the 5,634 tons being carried on the other eight ships. In addition another 19 colliers carrying a further 12,126 tons for P&O were due shortly, plus a further seven colliers carrying 5,800 tons for other users.
The Resident replied that he would do what he could to assist and he also mentioned that he had heard that ‘over 80 colliers were expected in the season now opening’. It was obvious that all these cargoes could not be, and did not need to be, stored in ready and convenient locations. As a temporary expedient he had asked the Harbourmaster to give up any part of the Government coaling ground that was not needed and that time. As a long-term solution he allocated additional land beyond Flint Island to be used as coaling grounds.