CAPTAIN ABUD

Almost without exception Assistants in the early years of the Coal Company had a series of contretemps with its hierarchy. A good example was Captain Abud who, in spite of seemingly blotting his copybook would have a long and distinguished career in Aden and elsewhere within the Bombay Presidency. Abud was on Perim for about 19 months from September 1887 (having been promoted sometime after his arrival) and the first of two incidents occurred in December 1888. In May the following year Hinton Spalding had written a strong letter of complaint to the India Office in which he accused Abud as being a ‘blight’ on that station. What had Abud done to upset Mr Turner in particular. (Mr Turner being the manager on Perim)?

In December the previous year Robert Anderson & Co, one of the shipping lines whose vessels sometimes called at Perim had written to their local MP with a complaint. According to their version of events one of their ships, the Locksley Hall, whilst passing through the small strait (and not due to call at Perim) had been recalled by a signal hoisted on the government mast by the fort. According to Anderson & Co the signal hoisted was ‘important letters and despatches’. Her captain had then taken his ship round the island and had entered the harbour, to find that the reason for recall was to tell two of his passengers, Lady Wilke and Lady Gough, that there was mail waiting for them at Aden! The shipping company was also upset because if there had been an accident the insurance cover on ship and cargo would have been invalidated by this deviation. The Locksley Hall was bound for Karachi and due to this diversion missed the evening high tide on arriving outside that port. The Perim Coal Company pointed out that they were the Agents on Perim for Robert Anderson & Co and should have been consulted as to the best way of contacting the vessel. The MP wanted the officer responsible to be punished.

In fact it turned out that it was the Resident, who was not expecting the Locksley Hall to call at Aden, who had sent Abud a telegram about the letters for the Ladies. The Resident’s official explanation was that Abud had had hoisted the signal ‘QH’, the meaning of which was ‘stop, heave to, I have something important to communicate’. The duty of the captain was then to hoist his answering pennant, at which point Abud would have informed him that there was mail at Aden. If this had occurred the ship would have been delayed only a few minutes. Instead of which the captain sailed his ship round to enter the harbour. Not unnaturally the resident pointed out that ‘no blame whatsoever is attached to Captain Abud’

But with a Member of Parliament involved someone had to take the blame. The Resolution of the Bombay Government was: “The circumstances should be reported to Her Majesty’s Secretary of State, and regret expressed for the error of judgement shown. Captain Abud should be admonished, and warned not to interfere with the course of a vessel under similar circumstances. Doubtless he did not anticipate the result of his signal, but at the most he should have consulted the Agent of the vessel at Perim as to the best way, if any, of conveying to the passengers on board the private communication which the Resident wished to be delivered The Resident should be informed that the Governor in Council cannot accept his view of the case.”

When he received this news Abud had already been on Perim for 17 months and within a couple of months he was due for leave. No doubt he felt that Turner had engineered his downfall. He decided to get his own back. Until that time Abud had not insisted on following to the letter the rather bureaucratic regulations concerning the arrival of shipping.

“In exercise of the power conferred by Section 53 of the Sea Customs Act, 1878, the Governor in Council is pleased to direct that no vessel arriving at the port of Perim shall pass the entrance of the harbour until a manifest has been delivered to the Government official appointed to board such vessel.”

This arrival form dealt with such things as what arms were carried aboard, what quantities of wines, spirits, opium and salt; another form also covered any accidents at sea, including going aground, fires on board and breakdowns. In practice the forms had to be completed and handed in within two hours of arrival to the Police Clerk on Company Side; if this was not done the Assistant Resident had the right to board the vessel, and presumably issue a summons. Up till then the procedure had been for completed forms to be sent up to Abud at the fort first thing each morning. In addition the practice had crept in of the Coal Company, as Agents, submitting the forms on behalf of captains. Abud now insisted on the two-hour rule. He had occasion to write to the captain of one ship, the Darwin, whose forms had not been handed in on time; Abud warned the captain that he could be fined or even imprisoned. Although her captain made no complaint at the time, her owners did subsequently, no doubt goaded on by Turner via Hinton Spalding. The Darwin’s owners’ complaint to Hinton Spalding was as follows:

“Our steamer Darwin when a short way out from Bombay homeward bound with instructions to call at Perim, your depot for coals, had a slight derangement of machinery which the captain naturally proceeded to get repaired on arrival at Perim. We now come to the interference of a person who seems to be styled Assistant Political Resident at Perim and shall be glad to know whether it is the practice of this individual to put all masters to the trouble, expense, and annoyance of filling up a lot of useless forms about matters which don’t concern him.”

It was perhaps typical of the insensitivity of Spalding that he chose to send a copy of this letter to the India Office. In Bombay, amongst the professional administrators the letter was summed up in one word: impertinent. By the time the complaints reached the India Office Abud was on leave in England and it took some time to get his side of the story. The Residency in Aden were not willing to accept any of the three charges that had been brought against Abud but as had happened in the previous incident higher authority was not supportive and at the end of May the India Office approved of the Government of Bombay’s decision not to send Abud to Perim again. In any case it would have been most unlikely that Abud would have gone back to Perim on returning from leave - in fact no Indian Civilian Staff Assistant ever did so. So what appeared to Spalding in Liverpool and to the politicians in the India Office to be a censure of Abud was in fact a normal career move.

Lt Col Stace, the Acting Resident in Aden, on 23 June summed up the local view to Captain Lydd who had replaced Abud at Perim: “The Company in its headstrongness is blind to the fact that Government must uphold government rights and that once they fail to do this their collapse is at hand. The Company too has not yet learnt that the Government of India is a very different thing from the Government at home and cannot be bullied in the same way. p.s. Abud has gone to Zaila.” [The Somali Coast was at that time administered by Bombay through Aden.]