Bahrain Harbour, according to a new Survey by R.I.M.S. Investigator in 1901-2 with large corrections to 1903 and small corrections to 1913.


The importance of the Gulf as a strategic and commercial water way has been recognised since the classical period so scientifically accurate charts were a high priority for the East India Company, who were responsible for its administration. The first survey of this magnitude is attributed to Lieuts. Guy and Bruckes in 1821-29 for the Bombay Marine. Although a magnificent work, it was a product of its time and by the mid 19th century, some of its deficiencies were apparent. In 1850, another naval officer, Lieut. C.G.Constable read a paper in front of the Bombay Geographical Society, outlining the problems with the survey; this in turn brought him to the attention of the government of India. In 1856, now promoted to Commander, he was detached from his normal duties and attached to the Persian Expeditionary Force as a surveyor. At the conclusion of the First Anglo-Persian War, in 1857, he was ordered to undertake a new survey of the Gulf, with the assistance of Lieut. A.W.Stiffe.

This survey, completed in 1860 and integrated with work made in the Harbour by another surveyor, Whish, provided the fundamental information on this new survey of Bahrain.

As these naval surveys were often a matter of life or death for mariners and merchant captains, several other surveys were undertaken by the Royal Indian Navy. This chart shows the survey performed by the Royal Indian Marine Ship, "Investigator" in 1901-2 and was a fundamental advance on the previous survey by the Royal Navy Schooner, Constance in 1872-4. The chart is concentrated on the northern part of the island and shows several important geographical updates to the shapes of Um Nasan Island, the north coast of the Bahrain Island and the shape of Muharrak Island. It also maps and updates the structure and shape of multiple reefs that are present in the area, including the coral reefs around Muharrak Island, the source of the world famous pearl beds. A small vignette on the lower border shows a ship board view of the shore of the northern coast of the same Island.

"Investigator's" voyage bears another distinction. It was the greatest and most widespread survey of the marine fauna of the Indian Ocean to that date and is still quoted as an authority to this day, usually under the heading of "Natural History Notes from H.M. Royal Indian Ship Investigator". The main compiler of these was Alfred Alcock, who would abridge them and issue them in the "Illustrations of the Zoology of the RIMS Investigator". These are renowned for both their beauty and accuracy. [MEAST4384]