The Persian gunboat Chalcheleh or Chachela in 1930

Document No. 146 referred to an extract from the Bushire Residency Diary (Persian) No. 11 of 1930 reporting the departure on 26 November of the Persian officials captain Ibrahim and Mr. Salim Pio via the overland route towards Port Said. There they intended to pick up the Persian boat Chalcheleh recently bought from Germany for 20,000 Ts. However it was doubtful if the boat was able to reach Bushire [Bushehr, Iran] on its own. A telegram No. 71 sent by the Political Agent Muscat on 16 March 1931 No. 71 to the Political Resident Bushire reported that a letter sent from Bushire for her captain arrived and if her movements were known. On 26 March sent the Political Agency&H.B.M.’s Consulate at Muscat a letter D.O. No. 91-C to lieutenant colonel H.V. Biscoe, Polical resident in the Persian Gulf referring to the telegram. He wrote that the arrival of Persian gunboats on the Gulf if that ever would happen would cause some awkward questions. The Muscat State was not pleased that such ships got free entry to Oman harbours. The Arabs disliked the Persians and (violent) incidents were to be expected. To his knowledge was Persia still claiming Muscat including demanding travel papers from travelers going to Muscat similar to the papers needed when going form one part to another within Persia. He suggested that the Muscat State did not permit Persian gunboats enter Oman waters as long as the claim existed and after giving up that claim only after week’s notice before visiting or what ever were the requirements for British sloops. On 21 March he was informed that the movements of the Chachela were unknown except for leaving Port Said 22 days earlier. A letter from Karachi dated 3 April D.O. No. 21 by Biscoe to the Political Agent Muscat (major T.C.W. Fowle) denied that Persia still hold on to the claims but Persia did not recognize the Muscat government and for this reason refused documents issued by this government. Dealing with the Chalcheleh the story complete differs. It was not a Persian gunboat at all but a launch with a length of about 50 feet bought by the Persian government from German to be used on the Caspian. Russia refused permission to go via the Volga to her destination so was chosen for Bushire. It was not a vessel of the projected Persian navy and he was not familiar with her future tasks , but he could imagine a conversion into a coastal patrol boat for the customs but regarded her size he doubted if she would visit the Arabian coast.

Source

Quatar Digital Library. File 9/21 Naval&Shipping: Persian Navy-activities&visits to Arab ports. Original British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers. IOR/R/15/6/319. 

Dutch minesweeper Hr.Ms. Axel M808

Zeeuws Archief. 

 Berthed alongside the pontoon of the provincial boat at Teurneuzen 2-23 April 1956

 

Zeeuws Archief. At sea in 1956

Part of Wildervank-class succeeded by Alkmaar-class. Laid down by N.V. Scheepsbouwwerf v/h De Groot*Van Vliet, Slikkerveer, Netherlands on 17 October 1953, launched on 3 March 1955, commissioned on 16 March 1956, decommissioned on 22 March 1973, sold to the Sultanate Oman on 27 March 1974, mine sweeping equipment removed, third Bofors machine gun added and served as patrol vessel Al Salini until 1981.

Omani registered fishing vessel Hilal 1

Las Palmas de Gran Canary, Canary Islands, Spain 6 November 2024

Oman-flagged, MMSI 461046111 and call sign 5TTDD. 

Oman sail training vessel Shabab Oman II 2013-

Schelde off Vlissingen, Netherlands 25 July 2022

Oman-flagged, IMO 9667215, MMSI 461000441 and call sign A4LB. Laid down at Damen Shipyards, Galati, Romania in March 2013, launched on 2 December 2013, completed at Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding/Amels Shipbuilding at Vlissingen, Netherlands in 2014 and departed on 14 September. Designed by Dykstra Naval Architects, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Gross tonnage 750 tons, summer deadweight 360 tons and as dimensions 87 x 11 x 50 (height) metres or 285’x 36’x 160’. Manned with 58 sailors and 34 trainees. Full-rigged ship

Oman sail training vessel Shabab Oman II 2013-

Schelde off Vlissingen, Netherlands 21 July 2022

Oman-flagged, IMO 9667215, MMSI 461000441 and call sign A4LB. Laid down at Damen Shipyards, Galati, Romania in March 2013, launched on 2 December 2013, completed at Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding/Amels Shipbuilding at Vlissingen, Netherlands in 2014 and departed on 14 September. Designed by Dykstra Naval Architects, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Gross tonnage 750 tons, summer deadweight 360 tons and as dimensions 87 x 11 x 50 (height) metres or 285’x 36’x 160’. Manned with 58 sailors and 34 trainees. Full-rigged ship

Oman sail training vessel Shabab Oman II 2013-

Inner harbour of Vlissingen, Netherlands 14 Sepetmber 2014

Schelde off Vlissingen, Netherlands 14 September 2014

Laid down at Damen Shipyards, Galati, Romania in March 2013, launched on 2 December 2013, completed at Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding/Amels Shipbuilding at Vlissingen, Netherlands in 2014 and departed on 14 September. Designed by Dykstra Naval Architects, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Gross tonnage 750 tons, summer deadweight 360 tons and as dimensions 87 x 11 x 50 (height) metres or 285’x 36’x 160’. Manned with 58 sailors and 34 trainees. Full-rigged ship. 

Dutch OPV's Zr.Ms. Friesland and Groningen

Inner harbour of Vlissingen, Netherlands 8 September 2014. In the background left is a part of the Omanian sailing vessel Shahab of Oman II visible

Part of the Holland-class ocean going patrol vessels of four ships all built by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding, Vlissingen, Netherlands. The casco’s were built at the Damen shipyard at Galatz, Romania and completed at the Damen shipyard ar Vlissingen. This class was designed to be used for coast guard duties in the Netherlands and the Caribbean area including search and rescue and calamity tanks. Further more they were to be used for maritime safety purposes as patrolling against piracy. In 2011 was the decision to sell two off the vessels for budget savings. 

Zr.Ms. Friesland (P842) laid down on 26 November 2009, launched on 4 November 2010 and commissioned on 22 January 2013.

Zr.Ms. Groningen (P843), laid down on 9 April 2009, launched and baptized on 21 April 2011 and commissioned on 29 November 2013. Displacement 3.750 (maximum) tons and as dimensions 107,9 x 16,8 x 4,55 metres. Speed 21,5-22 knots. Crew numbers standard 52 men with accommodation for at least another 38 men like boarding crew and helicopter crew. The armament consisted of 1-7,6cm gun, 1-3cm automatic Marlin WS gun, 2-12,7mm automatic Oto Melara Hitrole machineguns, 2-4x12,77mm Browning M2 machineguns and 2-6x 7,62mm FN MAG machineguns. If available fitted out with 1 NH-90 helicopter and 2 FRISCS. 

Omanian navy training ship Shabab Oman II 2013-

Passing Vlissingen, Netherlands towards North Sea for trials 27 July 2014

Omani tug Murbat 1980-?

Built in 1980 at the Hip Hing Cheung Shipyard Ltd., Kowloon, Hong Kong for account of the Omani government with yard number 120. Gross register tonnage 120 tons.

Oman Sailing training ship Shabab Oman 2013-

Inner harbour Vlissingen, Netherlands 1 May 2014 placing top ends of her masts

Casco built at the Damen shipyard in Romania, now being completed at Damen shipyard at Vlissingen, Netherlands (Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding).. 

Oman navy sailing training ship Shebab Oman 2013-

Before the shipyard just out of the shipbuilding shed at Vlissingen, Netherlands 19 April 2014

Casco built at the Damen shipyard in Romania, now being completed at Damen shipyard at Vlissingen, Netherlands (Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding).

Oman's new navy sail training ship Shabab Oman(II) 2013-

 Entering the locks at Vlissingen, Netherlands to be rigged at the shipyard of Amels 14 January 2014

A square rigged 3-mast steel-built clipper with as main dimensions 87 x 11 metres and a sail area of 2.700 square metres. Built to replace the RNOV Shabab Oman. March 2013 laid down at the Damen shipyard Galati, Romania and to be delivered medio August 2014. Height of the masts is 50 metres and which are made of steel and aluminium. Her crew will be numbering 58 persons to which another 34 recruits can be added.

Skinners' description of the navy of Muscat in 1833

Skinner arrived in the morning of 21 June 1833 with his ship in the harbour of Muscat. Her he saw some ships of the navy of Muscat.

p. 356: "A number of fine vessels lie in the harbour, belonging to the navy of the Imaun of Muscat. They were all built at Bombay, and one of them is considered the best ever launched from those docks. She is a beautiful model, but wretched filthy and neglected; the Imaun has not lately had any occasion to use his fleet".

Source
major Skinner. Adventures during a journey over land to India, by way of Egypt, Syria, and the Holy land. Philadelphia, 1837. Digitized by Google.

The Liverpool of the Imaum of Muscat broken up in 1825?

In earlier note on this weblog I referred to a description made by James Edward Alexander’s while visiting the dock yard at Bombay. Here he saw the building of a 80-gun ship for the Imaum, later to be launched that year. She was in advance called Imaum, presented as a gift to the British crown and renamed Liverpool. I found a reference in The Asiatic Journal dealing with her predecessor. “Imam of Muscat’s Marine. We are informed that the Imam has sent the Liverpool to Bombay for the purpose of being broken up, as she is rapidly decaying. His Highness, we believe, intend« requesting permission from Government to construct another vessel, in the Bombay Dock-yard, nearly after the same model, though somewhat larger. He appears very desirous of keeping up his marine force, which has become rather formidable; at least it is so in the estimation of the native tribes on the Arabian coast; and this is an object which he has been always desirous of attaining, as it gives a security to his power in the possessions held by him on the coast of Africa, from whence about one-fourth of his revenue is derived,- [Bom. Cour. Dec. 15.]”.

Source
The Asiatic Journal and monthly register for British India and its dependencies, volume 19, p. 849. London, 1825.

The navy of the sultan of Muscat Oman in October 1833

I found an interesting article in the American Magazine of useful and entertaining knowledge, vol. 3, no. 8, p. 327 of May 1837 an article dealing with the navy of Muscat Oman, written by a certain S. Probably this was William Sullivan. The list he gave is undated. The same article was earlier published by Edmund Roberts in his Embassy to the eastern courts of Cochin-China, Siam and Muscat in the U.S. sloop-of-war Peacock during the years 1832-1834. New York, 1837, p, 363. See also the notes on this weblog.(1) Here the list was dated October 1833. Both books are digitized by Google.

“Liverpool, 74 guns, built at Bombay, stationed at Zanzibar (2)

Shah Alum, 56 guns, built at Bombay, stationed at Zanzibar (3)

Caroline, 40 guns, built at Rangoon, stationed at Muscat (1)

Prince of Wales, 36 guns, built at Demaun, stationed at Muscat

Henningshaw, 36 guns, built at Cochin, at Calcutta

Piedmontese, 32 guns, built at Muscat, stationed at Muscat

Mossapa, 24 guns, built at Cochin, stationed at Muscat

Rahmani, 22 guns, built at Bombay, stationed at Muscat

Falke, 18 guns, Demaun, stationed at Bombay

Soliman Shah, 18 guns, built at Muscat, stationed at Muscat,

Curlew, brig, 12 guns, built at Bombay, stationed at Muscat

Psyche, brig, built at Cochin, stationed at Muscat

Sage, yacht, 6 guns, built at the Malabar Coast, stationed at Zanzibar

Vestal, 6 guns, built at Muscat, stationed at Muscat

Elphinstone, 6 guns, built at Bombay, stationed at Bombay

Also 50 baghelas, carrying from 8 to 18 guns; and 10 balits, carrying from 4 to 6 guns. The baghela is a one masted vessel, of from 200 to 300 tons. The balit is also a one masted vessel, from 100 to 200 tons. Part of these vessels are used to convoy vessels to the Persian Gulf, and some are in Africa, &c. Thus it is seen that the sultan of Muscat is a powerful prince. He possesses a more efficient naval force than all the native princes combined, from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan. His possessions, in Africa, stretch from Cape Delagado to Cape Guardafur ; and from Cape Adra, in Arabia, to Ras el Haud ; and, from Ras el Haud, they extend along the northern coast of Arabia, or the coast of Aman, to the entrance to the Persian Gulf, and he claims, also, the sea coast and islands within the Persian Gulf, including the Barhein islands, and the Pearl Fishery, contiguous to them, with the northern coast of the Gulf, as low down as Scindy. The vessels of the sultan trade not only with his own ports in Africa, and the valuable islands of Monpoea, Zanzibar, Pemba, and Socotra, but also to Guzzerat, Surat, Demaun, Bombay, Bay of Bengal, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, the Mauritis, the Comora islands, Madagascar, and the Portuguese possessions, bringing Indian, African, and European articles. About two thousand vessels are thus engaged in this trade, of which a very large proportion are small craft, to be sure. The naval force of the sultan gives him entire control over all the ports in East Africa, the Red Sea, the coast of Abyssinia, and the Persian Gulf. This force consists, it seems, of between seventy and eighty sail of vessels, carrying from seventy-four guns to four. The officers of this force practise lunar observations, and have excellent chronometers. Since our treaty with the sultan, in 1835, our vessels are beginning to push an advantageous trade there, though they encounter formidable competitors in the British, who enjoy great advantage from their Indian possessions. The exports are gum copal, aloes, gum arabic, ivory, tortoise shell, hides, beeswax, cocoa, rice, ghee, dates, raisins, and a great variety of drugs. These statements are corroborated by information which we have received from a gentleman who has seen the Liverpool and Shah Allum, and two or three sloops and brigs of war, at Zanzibar, a place which he has repeatedly visited. Zanzibar is an important port in the sultan of Muscat's dominions, and probably the town contains ten or twelve thousand inhabitants. The people are of course chiefly Arabs; but they have a great number of slaves, brought from Africa. The merchants who speak English very well, are the Banyans, a sect from Hindostan. The island itself is fertile and pleasant, and a considerable trade is carried on there by the Americans, in gum copal, ivory, &c. which are brought -from Africa. The sultan has a palace of stone, built at Zanzibar within three or four years, and quite handsome. He is a fine looking and pleasant man, and very generous and hospitable to the Americans. When our informant was lying there at anchor, a person who had been staying on board was obliged to go on shore to wait for his vessel. The sultan ordered him to be provided with a house and every thing needful.”“If any of our readers were told that the sultan of Muscat had a navy about as large as ours, they might be very incredulous, till they looked at facts. But, nevertheless, the sultan has a powerful navy. We gather, from ‘a Digest of existing Regulations for foreign countries, with which the United States have intercourse,’- a most valuable work, by the way, printed by order of Congress-the following statement of the naval force of the sultan of Muscat.

Sources

Edmund Roberts. His Embassy to the eastern courts of Cochin-China, Siam and Muscat in the U.S. sloop-of-war Peacock during the years 1832-1834. New York, 1837

Ruttonjee Ardeshir Wadia. The Bombay dockyard and the Wadia master builders. 2004.

American Magazine of useful and entertaining knowledge, vol. 3, no. 8, p. 327 of May 1837.

Notes

1. “James Edward Alexander’s notes dealing with the navy of the Imaum of Muscat in 1825-1826”, “Skinners’ description of the navy of Muscat in 1833”, “The frigate built in Burma for the Imaum of Muscat in 1825-1826”,and “The Liverpool of the Imaum of Muscat broken up in 1825?”

2. Wadia: 74-guns ship of the line, built 1826, measured 1715 tons, presented to the British king.

3. Wadia: 56-guns frigate, built 1819, dimensions 181’3” x 41’5”, measured 1111 tons.

4. Wadia: 36-guns frigate built 1814, costs Rs. 125 or £ 21:3:9 per ton, measured 575 24/95 tons.

James Edward Alexander's description of the Bombay dock yard in April 1826

Alexander arrived in the morning of 20 April 1826 at Bombay where he visited the dock yard.

P. 70: "In the evening I visited the dock-yards, the master-builders in which, as well as the shipwrights, are all Persees, the finest and most enterprizing race in India. A large eighty-gun ship was on the stocks building for the Imaum of Muscat, who is possessed at present with the ship-building mania.(1) Our Government allow him to build as many vessels as he pleases, as it would be an easy matter

p. 71: to take them from him in the event of a war. Besides this ship there was a smart eighteen-gun sloop for the Bombay Marine, almost completed.(2) She possessed the advantage of being sufficiently high out of the water to admit of a tier of scuttles; a most invaluable acquisition in tropical climes, and which is found in none of the King's ships of her size. I saw the keel, sternpost, and stem of a seventy-four, intended for the Royal Navy, which was to be put on the stocks after the launched of the Imaum's ship. The docks do great credit to the engineer who constructed them. The timber used in them comes from the Malabar coast."

Sources

James Edward Alexander. Travels from India to England; comprehending a visit to the Burman Empire, and a journey through Persia, Asia minor, European Turkey. &c. in the years 1825-1826. London, 1827. Digitized by Google

J.J. Colledge. Ships of the Royal Navy. An Historical Index, 2 vols. David&Charles, Newton Abbot, 1969.

Ruttonjee Ardeshir Wadia. The Bombay dockyard and the Wadia Master Builders. 2004.

Notes

1. This must be the Imaum, launched 10 November 1826, in 1836 presented to the British king. She was renamed Liverpool.

2. Presumably the sloop Clive, armed wit 18 guns, and 420 tons large. According to Colledge with a builders measurement of 387 tons. Sold 1862.

James Edward Alexander's notes dealing with the navy of the Imaum of Muscat in 1825-1826

In October 1825 arrived Alexander at Rangoon, Burma. He became a volunteer for a patrol river upwards from Rangoon to Prome. The boats with a detachment soldiers departed from the Kings' wharf.

P. 25: "We passed a thirty-six gun frigate on the stocks, building for the Imaum of Muscat, and named the Bundoolah, after the celebrated generalissimo of the Burmese: she was nearly ready for launching".

Alexander arrived in the morning of 20 April 1826 at Bombay where he visited the dock yard.

p. 70: "In the evening I visited the dock-yards, the master-builders in which, as well as the shipwrights, are all Persees, the finest and most enterprizing race in India. A large eighty-gun ship was on the stocks building for the Imaum of Muscat, who is possessed at present with the ship-building mania. Our Government allow him to build as many vessels as he pleases, as it would be an easy matter

p. 71: to take them from him in the event of a war. The docks do great credit to the engineer who constructed them. The timber used in them comes from the Malabar coast."

Source

James Edward Alexander. Travels from India to England; comprehending a visit to the Burman Empire, and a journey through Persia, Asia minor, European Turkey. &c. in the years 1825-1826. London, 1827. Digitized by Google.

Utility landing craft (LCU1) Al Temsah (L 10) of Oman

Of the Saba al Bahr-class with as sister ships the Saba al Bahr and the Al Doghas. She was laid down on 8 September 1982, launched on 15 December of the same year and on 12 February 1983 launched. In 2002 still mentioned. With a displacement of 230 tons full load were her dimensions 27,84 (between perpendiculars)-33,0 x 8,18 x 1,51 metres. Her crew numbered 11 men. She was unarmed. The two Caterpillar 3408STA diesels provided 762 bhp and with a speed of 8 knots was her range 1,800 nautical miles.