European Navigators Research Articles

Socotra: 'Island of Bliss'

Geologically socotra forms a north-easterly extension of Cape Guardafui, through the islands of Abd al Kuri and numerous other islands and reefs which stretch across the intervening 120 miles channel. Socotra more closely resembles the structure of the rock masses of the Sinai Peninsula, being composed of a basal Archean series, limestone and some comparatively recent volcanic rocks. Like Sinai, too, and volcanic Aden, some 500 miles to the west, Socotra has a land surface of very great antiquity. It is thought that the Haggier mountains, rising to 5000 feet, were at no time entirely submerged. The earlier inhabitants were probably from Arabia. The ethnological charac? teristics of the Socoteri Bedouin of the interior today closely resemble those of the Himyarites surviving in the Mahra district of South Arabia, who themselves came from the Yemen. The language spoken by the Bedouin, unintelligible to the major part of the island's population who speak Koranic Arabic, is very similar to the Ehkili dialect of the Mahra area. From early times Socotra has, however, claimed the attention of the outside world for short periods only. Ptolemy refers to it as 'Dioscoridis Insula', 'The Island of Bliss', and Arrian records that its inhabitants were subject to the kings of the Incense Country. It was known to sailors as a landmark on voyages to the east and a shelter from the Indian Ocean monsoons. Later, in the thirteenth century, Marco Polo knew ofthe island and in 1503 Socotra was made known to European navigators by Fernandez Perara. A few years afterwards Albuquerque took possession of the island but this occupation, like previous visits to Socotra, was short-lived. The reason for this obscurity lies in Socotra's inaccessibility. Monsoon winds from the north-east and south-west, blowing for up to ten months of the year, cause severe surf conditions along Socotra's exposed coastline and even if sailors, in those days of sail, had approached the coral-infested offshore, they would have found few safe anchorages. However, with the advent of steamships, it was to be expected that landings would now be attempted. Thus, in 1835, Lieutenants Haines and Wellsted of the Indian Navy visited the island in the survey ship Palinurus. From this time onwards there has been an increasing number of expeditions and visits by European explorers and scientists particularly since the advent of the aeroplane. Yet while much work has been done in uncovering Socotra's scientific secrets, little has yet been done adequately to survey the island since the earlier incomplete efforts made by the two officers of the Indian Navy. Today the Royal Navy still use the chart, surveyed by Lieutenants Haines and Wellsted and published by James Horsburgh in 1835, which, although it contains accurate coastal soundings, shows little detail inland. It is true that since then some place-names and topo? graphical details have been supplied by explorers, and soldiers who were stationed on the island during the Second World War. An airfield, at Ra's Karma, was used by several squadrons (South African, Dutch, Canadian as well as British), to counteract German and Japanese submarines operating in the area. To protect the airfield there was a garrison of troops from the Aden Protectorate Levies, the Somaliland Scouts, India and French West Africa. These findings, together with the results of

The Sixth Pacific Science Congress

THE immense area of the Pacific Basin comprises what is perhaps the most fascinating region of the globe. It is bounded on the east, on the north and, as far south as the equator, on the west by volcanic regions indicative of great geological instability. It includes open stretches of sea hundreds of thousands of square miles in extent and contains more than twenty thousand islands, some of them rocky, others volcanic and others again of coral origin. These islands have a distinctive and in many respects a unique fauna and flora. They are populated by most interesting native races, Polynesians, Melanesians and Micronesians, who, coming originally from south-east Asia, settled these widely scattered islands by the most remarkable of all human migrations. There they evolved a civilization which evoked the amazement of those early European navigators who, however unwittingly in many cases, sowed the first seeds of its subsequent rapid decay.