A dhow pulled to beach for roping and Shouna last week.
Pearl Diving Al Ghous Festival training wraps up
KUWAIT CITY, July 27: The 28th Al Ghous Festival training ended Wednesday at the Kuwait Sea Sports Club with the boys and their captains well primed to sail to Khairan Thursday for the actual pearl diving expedition.
The teams are ready for the voyage. Captain Hamed Al-Sayyar said that all the thirteen boats have been tested and are absolutely fit for the voyage. The dhows, which are faithful replicas of the ancient boats, only scaled down in size, will voyage far into the sea and beyond the horizon on Thursday evening.
Some of the dhows were gifted to the Kuwait Sea Club by HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, and the rest by the late Amir HH Sheikh Jaber Al Sabah.
The vans brought the trainees to the club and another hectic day began for them. Thursday is the day when the trainees would go on their maiden voyage to Khairan. However, before riding the vessel, the trainees had the routine physical exercises to do.
The silence of the beach was punctured when the trainees began the exercises. The drill ended with a swim.
The boys took shower and filed into the hall for breakfast, served on large platters, each meant for about 10 boys. After a fulfilling repast of Qubs, cheese and tea, the boys geared up to ride the crafts.
Activities
A flurry of activities followed. The boys got busy with preparing the sails. For many trainees this was the second or third consecutive year in the program. For first timers the thrill was uncontainable. The thought of floating on a vast sea in a wooden vessel was enchanting.
Asked about the boats, the captains said that Kuwait’s modern pearling fleet is made up of smaller versions of the pearling boats used during the time when pearling industry was at its height. The early dhows were of massive scale compared to the present day boats, and could carry as many as a hundred crew members or more, depending on the wealth and prominence of ship owners in those days.
The current dhows are big enough to carry about 15 to 20 crew members. The 190 trainees will be sailing for the pearl fishing on 15 boats. There will be nearly 120 crew members totally including captains and their assistants.
There were different types of boats in the old, called differently as Boums, Battils, Shu’is, Jalbuts and Sanbuks. These made Kuwait’s pearling fleet, numbering some 800 ships at the time.
Captain Al-Sayyar recalled with wonder the early days of shipping in Kuwait when sails were not yet in vogue. The boats then were mainly propelled by rowing, and shipmasters relied on strong oarsmen until the discovery of sails.
There are many legends related to the origin of sails. One of them says that once, a man called Ghailan who lived at Khur Al Mahanda, in what is present day Qatar, hired men to work on his pearling boat.
Competition
Ghailan was said to be a man of authority and worked without competition.
But he found a strong rival in a woman called Mai. She was a courageous woman and owned a fleet of pearling vessels and her men were stronger than Ghailan and knew where the best pearl banks were.
As Ghailan was thinking of a way to defeat his rival, he saw a locust and examining its wings he hit upon the idea of a sail. He applied the idea and was successful.
If the legend is true then Ghailan would easily feature among the most influential inventors in history. The Arabic word for sail, Shira, is a pure Arabic word.
Sails are relied on by sailors even today, because in the event of engine failures, sailors fall back on their reserve sails.