Untold lives blog

In honour of British Science Week #BSW16 we are looking at examples of ciphers and codes in manuscripts from the British Library.

Add MS 32253 is part of a series of cipher letters relating to despatches from the English Foreign Office to British ministers at foreign courts 1760-1830. These volumes are a treasure trove of codes, letters and keys. Here is a letter from Secretary of State, Sir Francis Windebank (1582-1646) writing to his son from Paris in 1640 where he touches upon the competition between himself and English Ambassadors in the French court: “I stand telling him plainly that there is so much malice upon me”.

 
Detail of a letter from Sir Francis Windebank  to his son, 1640, Add MS 32257 f. 5v.

The letter begins in plain English but cipher is introduced on the first page. The cipher has been translated on the second page and a key added on the third.

Detail of a letter from Sir Francis Windebank  to his son, 1640, Add MS 32257 f  6v.

There is a delightful letter of 1657 from Richard Lawrence to John Wallis (1616-1703)  in Add MS 32499 which reads: “If you can finde out a key whereby to picke this locke you are able to reade any thinge”.

Detail of a letter from Richard Lawrence to John Wallis. 1657, Add MS 32499.

Another collection containing manuscripts in cipher is the Canning Archive which includes the papers of Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House, George Canning (1770-1827). 

The letter below was sent from Paris in 1807 at the height of Napoleon’s military and political success in Europe, only two months ahead of the French invasion of Portugal, presumably at some risk to the sender. The letter was marked on receipt, probably by one of George Canning’s foreign office secretaries, as ‘Most Secret’. The hidden message has been written in sympathetic, or invisible, ink (blue text) with a second message then over-written in conventional ink. The hidden message has been revealed using a chemical reaction, by brushing on a liquid (apparent by the yellow staining), but messages were also sometimes revealed using heat. Sympathetic ink was used for the transmission of secret intelligence up until the late-19th Century.

Detail of a letter in sympathetic ink from Charles McMahon to George Canning via the Foreign Office, 19 September, 1807 Add MS 89143.

This next letter was written from St. Petersbourg by Stratford Canning, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and contains a message in cipher written between the lines of a standard letter. The use of cipher for the sending of confidential diplomatic messages was widespread and it seems as if Stratford has used the opportunity to send both a conventional letter with news of diplomatic negotiations along with a coded counterpart containing perhaps a more forthright opinion.

Letter to George Canning from Stratford Canning, 30 March, 1825, Add MS 89143.

Stratford Canning had been sent by George Canning to initiate negotiations between Britain and Russia over the status of the border of Russian America (Alaska) and to seek support for the Greeks in their war of Independence against Turkey. Although his discussions with Tsar Alexander I and his chancellor Count Nesselrode were successful in relation to resolving the border issue, the hoped for bilateral agreement over the status of Greece, outside a planned Europe-wide conference, did not eventuate and Stratford left St. Petersburg during April 1825.

These are just a few examples of some of the exciting manuscripts in code and cipher that are housed in the British Library. More can be searched for and discovered on our online catalogue.

Jonathan Pledge, Curator of Contemporary Archives and Manuscripts, Public and Political Life

Alexandra Ault, Curator of Manuscripts and Archives, 1601-1850

For 135 years the Dictionary of National Biography has been the national record of noteworthy men and women who’ve shaped the British past. Today’s Dictionary retains many attributes of its Victorian predecessor, not least a focus on concise and balanced accounts of individuals from all walks of national history. But there have also been changes in how these life stories are encapsulated and conveyed.

In its Victorian incarnation the Dictionary presented each life as a double-column printed text. 2004 saw the publication of the online Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) with the addition of portrait images. Today the Dictionary includes portraits of 11,500 of its 60,000 subjects. Every image is a depiction of the sitter from life, so as to convey an aspect of his or her personality.

Now the Oxford DNB is moving on- this time with the inclusion of sound - in a project to link biographies to voice recordings made by an initial selection of 750 historical individuals. The earliest clips—including the suffrage campaigner Christabel Pankhurst and the Liberal prime minister, Herbert Asquith - are held in the ‘Early Spoken Word’ archive at the British Library. 

Christabel Pankhurst by Lambert Weston & Son, c.1905 by kind permission of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG x32605)

As the crackling on these wax cylinders makes clear, this was a pioneering form of communication reserved for periods of political drama. Speaking in December 1908, Christabel Pankhurst issued a rallying call to every ‘patriotic and public spirited woman’ to take up ‘militant’ tactics in the hope that ‘1909 must, and shall, see the political enfranchisement of women.’ In his speech on the 1909 ‘people’s budget’ Herbert Asquith acknowledged the intersection of technological novelty and looming political crisis: ‘I have gladly accepted this invitation to speak to you in this unusual manner to reach as many of my fellow countrymen as possible’.

Two decades later the availability of ‘wireless’ instilled a new pioneering spirit. It’s captured in George V’s opening words to the first Christmas message of 1932: ‘Through one of the marvels of modern science, I am enabled … to speak to all my people throughout the Empire’.

 
King George V (1865-1936) ©Leemage/UIG/The British Library Board Images Online

Other British Library clips reveal how voice recordings took on new formats in the 1930s: the personal travel documentary by Amy Johnson; chef Marcel Boulestin’s guide to perfect omelettes (‘practice, quickness, a thick iron pan and a good fire’); and the celebrity interview with Arthur Conan Doyle (‘how I came to write Sherlock Holmes’). This ability to catch a person’s accent, and indeed to hear a person speak, is the principal attraction of linking ODNB biographies to sound recordings. Hearing the voice reminds us that a distant historical figure was a living person as well as the subject of a biographical text. Listening to voices recorded more than a century ago conjures up something of the ‘marvels’ and delight alluded to by George V.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) from Men and Women of the Day. A picture gallery of contemporary portraiture. Jan. 1888- July 1894 (London, 1888-94) 10804.i.3, 70 Images Online 

The effect is particularly striking in the Oxford DNB’s earliest link to the British Library sound archive— that for Florence Nightingale who spoke in support of the Light Brigade Relief Fund in July 1890. Barely audible over the hiss, she concludes her short, carefully enunciated message: ‘When I am no longer even a memory, just a name, I hope my voice may perpetuate the great work of my life. God bless my dear old comrades of Balaclava and bring them safe to shore.  Florence Nightingale’.

Florence Nightingale c.1860 Add. 47458, f.31 Images Online

Philip Carter
Oxford DNB Senior Research and Publication Editor and a member of the History Faculty at Oxford University
 
More on the ODNB’s Sounds project, together with a list of all 750 links, is available here.

These recent days have seen the 85th anniversary of the arrival in  February 1931 of the party including the legendary Omani, Shaikh Saleh bin Kalut al Rashidi al Kathiri, who guided Bertram Thomas across the Empty Quarter, to complete the first recorded crossing of the Rub’ al-Khali desert or the Empty Quarter: in 1930 ‘the broadest expanse of unexplored territory outside the Antarctic’.

They had started off from Salalah, Dhofar on December 10, enduring extreme hardship and constant threat of ambush by warring tribes to arrive in Doha, Qatar, 59 days later. Here they were warmly greeted by a welcoming party headed by the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani.   Never would the sight of the ruler’s fort have been so welcome as it appeared to that band of weary travellers through the haze of desert air.  In celebration of the epic traversal of 1930/31, an Anglo-Omani expedition of three Omanis and one Briton have just retraced their steps, in audacious homage to the explorers of the earlier Anglo-Omani odyssey.

By completing this feat of desert exploration, Thomas and his party beat Harry St John Philby to the prize and glory of first crossing. St John Philby had based himself in Riyadh as he prepared to make his own journey.  It is reported that the news of Thomas’ successful crossing left Philby so deflated he refused to come out of his room for a week.  To rub salt in the wound Thomas also visited Riyadh some years later, an opportunity being afforded him by the post of Publicity Officer, Bahrain.  With reference to his preference for exploration over paperwork the Government of India informed the India Office, London, that: 

‘We endorse recommendations that post of Publicity Officer be offered to Bertram Thomas in terms proposed by Prior and subject to Thomas being fit and willing to subordinate private to public interest.’  

The Government of India’s endorsement of Thomas  IOR/R/15/2/933

From Bahrain Thomas made another pioneering trip, this time by car along gravel tracks to Riyadh: ‘there was rain almost every day and we were bogged on occasions for hours at a time’.

He later reported to the Political Resident: “I had three very cordial conversations with Ibn Sa’ud who talked to me very freely and frankly about a great many subjects.  He gave me the whole story of the part he had played at the time of Rashid Ali’s rebellion, of the flying visit to him of Naji as Suwaidi which was most interesting. He also expressed his views on the Palestine question.  I got the impression that he thinks in qua-Moslem rather than qua-Arab conceptions of politics. He said that the greatest page in our history was written in the year during this war when we stood alone.  He is a convinced believer in our star and in our destiny to shape the post-war world.”

Thomas’ assessment of the court of Ibn Sa’ud IOR/R/15/1/573 f 149

Thomas came away from his trip to Riyadh, ‘as does everybody, British and Americans alike’, with a great number of presents including a sword, a gold dagger and gold bangles; such things he continued to gather through other postings in Arabia which included representing the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell in the shaikhdoms of  Trucial Oman. 

‘Oil fields and Concession Areas in the Middle East’ IOR/R/15/1/700 f 248

Thomas was not to see the change in Britain's post-war world, heralded most dramatically at Suez. He died in Cairo in 1950, and in a form of poetry in motion, at the end of all his gruelling and groundbreaking sojourns in Arabia, he was returned to the quintessential English village of Easton-in-Gordano, Somerset, to be buried near the house where he was born.

Dr Francis Owtram, Gulf History Specialist, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership bl.uk/Qatar

Primary sources:
British Library, London, IOR/R/15/1/573  ff 152-154
British Library, London, IOR/R/15/2/933 f 6
Bertram Thomas, Arabia Felix: Across the Empty Quarter of Arabia (Jonathan Cape, 1938)
Mark Evans, Crossing the Empty Quarter: In the Footsteps of Bertram Thomas (Gilgamesh, 2016)
http://www.gilgamesh-publishing.co.uk/crossing-the-empty-quarter.html
Crossing the Empty Quarter – Tahaddi Arabia
Francis Owtram, A Modern History of Oman: Formation of the State since 1920 (IB Tauris, 2004)

Nell Gwyn, actress and mistress of Charles II, was born on this day in 1650. Nell's short life didn't have a promising start. According to the diarist Samuel Pepys, she was brought up in a brothel, where she served strong liquor to clients. In 1663, at the age of about twelve, Nell became an 'orange girl' in the King's Theatre, selling fruit to theatregoers and probably passing secret messages between the actresses and their lovers. Within a short time Nell was herself elevated to the stage, where she proved a great hit. Pepys wrote admiringly of 'Pretty, witty Nell' and her performances in comic roles - as well as of her shapely figure.

Eleanor ('Nell') Gwyn by Simon Verelst, circa 1680 © National Portrait Gallery, London   

It wasn't only Pepys who found Nell desirable. She had affairs with several men, before attracting the attention of the King himself. She became his mistress and eventually bore him two sons. The King was evidently very fond of her. On his deathbed he supposedly said to his brother, the future James II, 'Don't let poor Nelly starve'. Nell clearly didn't go short of money: when she died in 1687 she left several hundred pounds to family members, as well as money to help the poor and those in debt.

As Charles II's mistress, Nell had sometimes awkward relationships with the King's other lovers. A particular rival was Louise de Kéroualle, to whom Charles had given the title Duchess of Portsmouth. The British Library holds several contemporary publications satirising the spats between the two women, including A pleasant dialogue betwixt two wanton ladies of pleasure, A dialogue between the Duchess of Portsmouth and Madam Gwin at parting, and Madam Gwins answer to the Dutches of Portsmouths letter. The last of these is full of sexual innuendo: the fictionalised Nell says to Louise that the sea-god Neptune (presumably representing Charles II):

'proffer'd you Gold, and Pearl, and what not, if you would have let him stick his Trident in you.'

The Duchess of Portsmouth's Catholicism made her unpopular with some people. While Nell was riding through Oxford in a coach in 1681, she was reputedly mobbed by an angry crowd, who thought the coach contained the Duchess. Nell is supposed to have leaned out of the coach window and reassured the crowd by saying, 'Pray good people be silent, I am the Protestant whore'.

Fascination with Nell Gwyn and her exploits didn't end at her death. She has been the subject of plays, operas and stories in the centuries since, including a three-act play by Edward Jerningham, published in 1799 with the title The Peckham Frolic. In this comedy Charles II, in heavy disguise, meets Nell in Peckham, where all sorts of trickery ensues.

Edward Jerningham: The Peckham Frolic (London, 1799). BL shelfmark: 11778.d.1. 

Sandra Tuppen, Lead Curator Modern Archives and Manuscripts 1601-1850.

January marks the 211th anniversary of the opening of the London Docks.

The London docks were built by John Rennie, the Scottish civil engineer also responsible for canals, aqueducts, bridges and other docks.  Before the docks were built, it could take up to three months for cargo to be unloaded, leaving precious goods at risk of damage or theft.  The construction of the docks allowed the London Dock Company to command a 21-year monopoly over ships carrying rice, tobacco, wine and brandy, from all over the world with the exception of the East and West Indies.

The British Library has material relating to the London Docks which can be found on Explore the British Library.

This includes a significant number of views as well as early printed material relating to its planning and opening such as 'Reasons in favour of the London Docks' by William Vaughan, 1797, a copy of which was presented to the British Musuem by Vaughan himself.

'Reasons in favour of the London Docks' by William Vaughan, 1797, in A collection of tracts on wet docks for the Port of London, 1797. British Library 1029.d.9.(5).

The docks fast became a part of London topography and images of them were included in published walking tours such as Walks through London by William Clarke and Views of London by Charles Heath.

The Shipping Entrance, London Docks, drawn and engraved by John Charles Varrall for the 'Walks through London', published by William Clarke, New Bond Street, January 1817, British Library 010349 n 22.  

'Entrance to the London Docks' engraved by Charles Heath, drawn by Peter DeWint, published by Hurst, Robinson & Co, London, 1829, in Views of London. British Library 010349.n.22.

Views of the Docks were produced in all shapes and sizes and at different prices. Probably the most impressive and expensive were the bird's-eye-views by William Daniell. These hand-coloured aquatints were large at 49 x 86 cm and were self-published by Daniell in 1808 as part of the series Views of the London Docks. Today, the area around Wapping and the London Docks is virtually unrecognisable from the scenes depicted by Daniell.

A View of the London Dock. Drawn, engraved and published by William Daniell, 1808. Aquatint with hand-colouring. British Library Maps K.Top.21.31.3.b.PORT.11 TAB.

An elevated view of the new dock in Wapping. Drawn, engraved and published by William Daniell, 1808. Aquatint with hand-colouring. British Library Maps K.Top.21.31.3.a.PORT.11 TAB.

Alexandra Ault, Curator, Manuscripts and Archives 1601-1850, British Library.

Today, 17 January, marks the anniversary of two major events in the history of Antarctic exploration. It was on this day that Captain James Cook (1728-1779), of His Majesty’s Ship Resolution, made the first recorded crossing of the Antarctic Circle in 1773 and, 139 years later, that the explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912), with his five man team, reached the South Pole in 1912. Though both Captains would ultimately lose their lives in the course of their explorations, they made a significant contribution to the exploration of Antarctica.

Robert Scott and his men at Amundsen's base, Polheim. Photograph taken by Lawrence Oates. 18 January 1912. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Within a year of returning from his first voyage (Aug. 1768-Jul. 1771), that observed the transit of Venus, Captain James Cook was again commissioned by the Royal Society to lead another scientific expedition in search of the Terra Australis: an enormous land mass that had long been presumed to exist in the southern most extremities of the Southern Hemisphere. On his first voyage, Cook had chartered almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia and had circumnavigated New Zealand, demonstrating that neither was part of a larger southern continental landmass which all authorities now believed was to be found even further south. Setting out in July 1772 Cook and his crew circumnavigated the globe travelling as far south as possible to determine whether there actually was a great southern continent.

Ultimately, Cook’s voyage did not succeed in its aim of discovering a great southern landmass nor did it reach Antarctica. But, just as importantly, by crossing the Antarctic Circle on 17 January 1773 the ship and its crew became the first in recorded history to cross the line and had travelled further south than anyone in the world. In the ship’s journal, now held by the British Library, Cook confirmed that: 

At about a quarter  past 11 o’clock we cross’d the Antarctic Circle, for at Noon we were by observation four miles and a half south of it and are undoubtedly the first and only ship that ever cross’d that line.

Logbook of Lieut. James Cook (1770), The British Library, Add Ms 27885, f. 55. 

Cook and his crew would cross the Antarctic Circle three times during this voyage, and on its third attempt on the 30 January made their most southerly penetration but were ultimately forced back due to the solid sea ice. In his journal Cook admitted:

I who had ambition not only to go farther than anyone had been before, but as far as it was possible for man to go, was not sorry in meeting with this interruption…

Following Cook’s voyage, the international fascination with Antarctica increased with several expeditions to reach and map Antarctica emerging in the 1820s, followed some 80 years later by explorers such as Scott and Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), attempting to reach the South Pole.

Named the Terra Nova Expedition after the vessel which took them to the Antarctic, the first successful British expedition to the South Pole was that led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott and which reached the South Pole on this day, 17 January, 1912. Though the expedition aimed to fulfil a programme of scientific, zoological, geological, magnetic and meteorological studies it was principally motivated by a race to the Pole. However, when Scott’s expedition finally reached their target, to their dismay, they learnt that they had been beaten by Norwegian explorers led by Roald Amundsen (1872-1928). In Scott’s diary of 1912, now held at the British Library (and available online through ‘Turning the Pages’), the team’s disappointment at being beaten is palpable:

Wednesday, January 17 - Camp 69. THE POLE. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected. We have had a horrible day – add to our disappointment a head wind 4 to 5, with a temperature -22 degrees, and companions labouring on with cold feet and hands.

Captain Scott's diary (1912),  The British Library, Add Ms 51035, vol. 2, f. 36.

Having failed to be the first to reach the South Pole, Scott’s team turned back. Losing two team members on their way to base, the remaining explorers were ultimately halted on 20 March by a fierce blizzard just 11 miles from their depot.  Scott's last diary entry, dated 29 March 1912, the presumed date of his death, ended famously with the words:

…we shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more. R. Scott. Last entry. For God's sake look after our people.

Captain Scott's diary (1912), The British Library, Add Ms 51035, vol. 3, f. 39. 

The British Library will be holding a major exhibition on the voyages of Captain James Cook in the summer of 2018.

Dr Alexander Lock, Curator of Modern Historical Manuscripts 1851-1950 @BL_magnacarta

#CaptainCook #Captain Cook #Antarctic

One hundred years ago, British, French, Australian, New Zealand and Indian troops were holding the Gallipoli Peninsula against the Ottoman Empire.  The British Library holds eye witness accounts of three Allied Officers who were involved in the action: Roger Keyes, Chief of Staff to the Vice Admiral in command of the British forces at the Dardanelles; Major General Hunter Weston in command of the 29th Division; and Captain F.H. Mitchell of the Royal Navy.

The Gallipoli Peninsula lies on the European side of the Dardanelles Straits, which divides Europe from Asia.  After the Western Front turned into the stalemate of trench warfare in late 1914, a number of Allied Leaders began to consider new theatres of war to try and break the deadlock.  The ‘Easterners’, including Winston Churchill, believed that it would be possible to overcome the Ottomans at the Dardanelles and take Constantinople (now Istanbul).  This would undermine Germany and allow Britain and France to help their Russian allies.

The British Navy led a number of attacks during January, February and March 1915 in order to force the Straits but on 18 March the final attempt failed with heavy losses for the Allies.  Hunter Weston had doubted the success of this ‘Eastern’ strategy.  In his private diary he records: ‘I pointed out that owing to the ill-advised action of the Navy, our greatest asset, the element of surprise, had gone’.

 
Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.20 

The landings went ahead on 25-26 April 1915 and Mitchell described what happened in a letter to his wife:

‘The great day for which we have been working has come & gone, & although it proved the last day for many, was crowned with success. The army is now established on the end of the Gallipoli Peninsula, sufficiently firmly, I believe not to be turned off- It was a terrible landing place. Picture yourself two small coves with cliffs on each side which  were hollowed out to hold maxim guns- the whole of the beach planted thickly with barbed wire, & several lines of trenches just above the beach. That was what our men had to force, & by jove they did it, but at a price of losing 3000 men out of a total of 12,000 landed’.

The defences mentioned in Captain Mitchell’s letter are shown in this chart which belonged to Keyes and in these photographs from Hunter Weston’s diary.

Plan of the S.W. End of the Gallipoli Peninsula Showing Turkish Defences as existing 25 April 1915, Add MS 82485 D
 

Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.52

 

Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.56

After successfully landing the troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula the Allied Troops were halted and contained by the Ottoman troops and trench warfare was implemented. The photograph below shows Hunter Weston in the trenches leading to his dugout.

Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.84

The Allies began to attempt to push back the Ottomans and gain more ground. The photograph below shows a heap of empty shell cases after one such attack. These attacks were not successful and disease was sweeping through the camps, made worse by the lack of food, water and unsanitary conditions.

 Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.59

In August 1915 Hunter Weston was invalided home with sunstroke. The photograph below shows him leaving the Teigne Hospital in Malta.

Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.128

The decision was taken in December 1915 to evacuate the troops without having achieved their objective. Both sides had suffered huge losses through casualties and illness.

Laura Walker
Lead Curator, Modern Archives & Manuscripts 1851-1950

Further reading:
Most of the papers of Keyes, the complete diaries of Hunter Weston and the letters of Mitchell can be found on the Europeana website and on the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts website

Today is the 85th anniversary of the start of the historic crossing by Bertram Thomas of the Rub’ al-Khali, the vast desert known in English as the Empty Quarter which occupies the south-east corner of Arabia.  On 10 December 1930 Thomas set off from Dhofar, Oman, arriving 59 days later in Doha, Qatar - the first European to traverse this extreme, inhospitable environment.  This landmark achievement in desert exploration is being marked by an expedition of three Omanis and a Briton to retrace the steps of the Omanis and Thomas.

Following the defence of Muscat during World War One from the besieging tribesmen from the Interior under the Imam of Oman, the Government of India sought to restructure Muscat State to reduce its dependence on loans and borrowing from Indian merchants.  Part of this reform was the appointment of a British financial adviser to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman.

Bertram Thomas went out to Muscat as Financial Adviser or Wazir to Sultan Taimur bin Faisal Al Bu Sa’id.  After service in Mesopotamia, Thomas jumped at the opportunity of a posting to Muscat.   In December 1924 Thomas wrote from London to Colonel Francis Prideaux, the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, that he was ‘tremendously looking forward to the possibilities of Mascat. Some kind friend has compiled a bibliographical list of every work and paper previously published on Mascat or Oman and I’ve made some slight progress towards collecting a library of some of these publications’.

 
IOR/R/15/1/419 

Thomas combined his official duties of bringing a semblance of order to the budget of the Muscat State with his passion for exploring the archaeology, geography and natural history of Muscat and Oman. He honed his skills with some trips to the area round the Musandam Peninsula where he sought to identify the allegiance of different tribes to assist in dispute resolution and tax collection. In 1926 Thomas went up to the northernmost tip of the Arabian Peninsula to investigate the affiliations of the tribes in order to resolve a conflict between the Shaikh of Kalba and the Shaikh of Fujairah.  The Political Agent in Muscat informed the Political Resident in Bushire: ‘Thomas is making enquiries carefully and extensively to procure information, but this will take time. Areas referred to are not clear to us'.

 
IOR/R/15/1/278, f 110

His hand drawn map is shaded with different colours to demarcate the tribal areas of the Al Sharqiyin, Al Qawasim and Al Shihuh.  The Al Shihuh territory of the Musandam Peninsula was deemed to be a feudatory of the Sultan of Muscat.

Thomas stayed at his post in Muscat in the burning hot summer months so he could take leave in the cooler winter months and undertake preparatory expeditions to Dhofar.  He learned that it was essential to have camels used to the sands and he built up the trust of and confidence of the tribes who would help him make the crossing.  In early December 1930 Thomas hitched a ride from Muscat to Dhofar with an oil tanker of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.   He almost had to abandon the expedition because of a tribal feud but his guides turned up at the last moment.  Thomas’s preparation had paid off and his attempt to cross the Empty Quarter could begin…

Dr Francis Owtram
Gulf History Specialist, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership 

Further reading:
IOR/R/15/1/278 Punishment of the Sheikh of Fujairah. Sheikh Hawad bin Abdullah Sharqiyin
Crossing the Empty Quarter – Tahaddi Arabia
Francis Owtram, A Modern History of Oman: Formation of the State since 1920. IB Tauris, 2004.
Bertram Thomas, Arabia Felix: Across the Empty Quarter of Arabia. Jonathan Cape, 1938.