3-065-878 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Bombardment of Fort Masnaah, Gulf of Oman, 1874. Engraving from sketches by Navigating Lieutenant G. L. Ralph, of the Philomel, and Sub-Lieutenant H. G. Grey, of the Rifleman. These '...two vessels of the Royal Navy...were engaged in reducing the fort of Masnaah, on the Batinah coast of the Gulf of Oman...The fort, constructed by the Portuguese at the beginning of the seventeenth century, was a large square building, mounting several heavy guns...The fort and district belong to Syud Tourkie, the Sultan of Muscat, but had lately been seized by a rebel chief named Ibrahim bin Kais...Lieutenant-Colonel Ross, the British Political Resident on the shores of the Persian Gulf, demanded satisfaction, and required Ibrahim bin Kais to quit Masnaah. This he refused to do...Ibrahim bin Kais had four or five hundred men in the fort, and did not believe that the ships would be able to destroy it...the ships opened fire on the fort with double shell, making excellent practice, from a quarter past one in the afternoon to half-past three. The garrison surrendered, having already run short of provisions, so that they could not have maintained a defence...This example at Masnaah will have a beneficial effect on all the disorderly tribes of the coast'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.