COUNTRY CRAFT

The most usual type of sailing craft to call at Perim was the buggalow, a small locally rigged sailing craft of about 15 tons. From around 1860 for around 40 years the Aden Commissariat had a contract for a buggalow to take rations to the detachment and other eligible personnel living on ‘Government Side’ on Perim.

When the winds were favourable the contract buggalow made a round trip every fortnight. As well as the contract buggalow, other country craft were on their way to or from Red Rea ports, some flying the Turkish flag. Some of these would have been small dhows. In addition a dhow from India or the Persian Gulf occasionally called at Perim. A good idea of the scale of country craft calling at Perim can be gained from a snapshot of statistics at regular intervals between 1885 and 1903.

1885-86. 102 country craft arrived at Perim, of which 52 came from Aden (about half being the contract buggalow). 47 of the 52 were Arab owned and were all buggalows. One 39 ton dhow came from the Gulf. Apart from this dhow, 64 country craft arrived at Aden from Perim in the same year. Although only three Turkish-owned boats had arrived from Aden 11 had sailed in the opposite direction. From their average tonnage some must have been small dhows.

1891-92. In that year 60 of the 79 craft arriving from Aden were Arab buggalows. Two of the other 19 were dhows, one French and one from the Persian Gulf – the latter of 45 tons.

1894-95. 78 country craft arrived at Aden from Perim, all but four being Arab buggalows averaging 16.6 tons. The remaining four craft were two Italian buggalows and two British India dhows.

1902-03. From the figures for this year one can see that the small trading steamer was replacing the sailing craft due to the latter’s difficulty in sailing into the wind – which at worst meant an inability to sail from Perim to Aden during part of the year. Only 30 craft, all buggalows averaging around 16 tons, including three Italian, left Aden for Perim whilst 38 (including 12 Italian) sailed in the opposite direction.