OC OUTPOST | perim

PERIM OC OUTPOST

From the permanent occupation of Perim in 1858 to the coming of the Perim Coal Company in 1883, Perim had the official designation of being a ‘military outpost’, with the officer commanding the detachment of 50 men signing his official correspondence as ‘OC Outpost Perim’. His tour of duty was two months at a time, the same as his men, being this short length to reduce the incidence of scurvy, to help combat which there was a daily issue of lime juice to all ranks. The Resident in Aden had stipulated that the OC Outpost should [but not must] be a European – that let-out needed as a battalion of Indian infantry normally had only eight or nine British officers, and occasionally less.

The biggest problem must have been loneliness – with no like-minded person to talk to or drink with. There were three other people on Perim who might have been British, but none would ever have been from the same social background as the OC Outpost. The three were the engineer in charge of the lighthouse and the water condenser, someone from the Commissariat in charge of rations and stores and a medical assistant – the last two being either Senior NCOs or civilians.

Indian battalions did a two year tour in Aden and a junior officer could expect to do at least two short tours on Perim during that time; Lieutenant Candy managed to do four or five in his two years. Certainly one, Lieutenant King, took his family with him. When he returned to India King transferred to the Bombay Staff Corps and in 1877 an official booklet written by him on Perim was published. It was probably this that prompted an officer serving in Madras, writing under the pseudonym Aliph Cheem to include the following in his enlarged edition of ‘Lays of India’ which was published in 1878 or 1879.

THE CONTENTED SUB by Aliph Cheem

When the island of Perim became British soil,
Many pounds on a lighthouse were spent;
And to show British power, and replenish the oil,
A sub and some sepoys were sent.
But Perim is lonely, and barren, and hot,
Not a vestige of life in the place;
And many who’ve seen it consider the spot
A blotch upon Nature’s face.
So the duty, though simple enough of its kind,
Wasn’t fancied as much as might be.
Sub the first - Sub the second-went out of his mind,
Sub the third drank himself to D.T.'s.
Sub the Fourth, finding Christmas unbearably slow,
Very nigh brought his prospects to grief
By signalling “Stop!” to the Mail P. and O.
And asking for “pudding” and “beef”
‘Twas resolved then to send off a pair at a time;
But, once tried, ‘twas abandoned as cruel,
For monotony drove them to quarrel and crime,
And they slaughtered themselves in a duel.
The Gov’nor of Aden he raved and he stormed
His mind with perplexity laden,
“A duty’s a duty, and must be performed,
But how?” cried the Gov’nor of Aden.

"I don't like despatching young subs to their graves;
Still, a duty’s a duty, they’ll own;
So send to . . . that little place over the waves,
Lieutenant MacOdic Alloan."
Lieutenant MacOdic Alloan very soon
Took command of the feeders of oil ;
And the Governor wondered, as moon after moon
Found MacOdic Alloan at his toil.
And he wondered the more when a letter from Mac
Informed that, so far from disliking
The post, he’d at present no wish to come back,
And considered the scenery striking.
“By gad!” cried the Governor, chuckling, “at last
We have got the right man, I should say;
And what’s more, as he likes it, we’ll keep him there fast
As long as the beggar will stay.”
At the end of six months or so Mac again wrote,
“That he liked his retreat even more.
He could never again take to collar or coat,
And trousers would prove a sad bore.
“He’d no letters to answer, no duns to cajole,
No visits, no ponderous feeds,

No trouble, but now and then calling the roll,
And the rest of the day to his weeds,¬ -
“Lounging about in a jolly long laze,
Very like lotus eating, in fact.”
Said the Governor- “As long as it suits him, he stays,
But I’m hanged if I don’t think he’s cracked.”
Another six months, and a letter that said
That Lieutenant MacOdic Alloan
Was quite ready to stop a successor instead
So attached to the island he’d grown.
“Oh, pray let him stop!” roared the Gov’nor, “the muff.
A successor’d be awkward to find.
Some day, I suppose, he’ll be crying, ‘enough!’
I wish they were all of his mind!”
So MacOdic Alloan stopped a couple of years
“Which,” he wrote, “had too rapidly fled.”
And now very strong grew the Governor’s fears
That the lad must be wrong in his head.
And they grew, and they grew, till he swore by the Lord
That the youth must be mad as a hatter,
And he sent off to Perim a medical board
To see him and settle the matter.
To Perim the cargo of doctors soon ran
But they found not a trace of the sub.
He’d been living, this very contented young man,
At home, for two years, at his club!

There was an element of truth about the 4th verse – an OC did signal a mail steamer on Christmas Day. On another occasion, in late January 1869 a steamer of the French Messageries Imperiales line was passing through the Small Strait when the officer of the watch spotted signal flags denoting ‘short of provisions’ being flown at the signal mast beside the fort. Her captain at once sent an officer on shore with a supply of biscuits and cheese, plus some pale ale and porter for the OC Outpost who asked that the captain inform the Residency of the situation and that the detachment was short of dhal [an Indian puree made from pigeon-pea], ghee and beef. The Resident, Major General Sir Edward Russell, was not amused. He sent his thanks via the French Consul and his regret that the officer commanding at Perim should have taken the responsibility upon himself of making such a signal which the commander of the ‘Emirne’ could not but attend to. The OC Outpost, Lieutenant Davie, was asked to refund the cost from his own pocket and in due course would receive a reprimand from India for his actions.

The OC Commissariat was carpeted and asked to report on how this inefficiency had occurred, as Russell was under the impression that three months worth of provisions were kept on Perim. He also ordered that the requisite stores should be forwarded to Perim without delay. The Commissariat replied that some dhal and ghee had been sent on 1 January, and that beef was not an item supplied by them. It was also pointed out that the signal hoisted had been ‘short of’ and not ‘out of’. The Commissariat then admitted that the contract to keep three months worth of provisions had run out on 31 December and had not been renewed due to a long running disagreement with the contractor, who presumably had not bothered to top up the reserves on Perim towards the end of the contract period. The loneliness of the OC Outpost! Perhaps he should have chosen to stop a British ship, on the basis of not washing dirty linen in public.