[Oman-L] Ahmed Bin Na'umann's Voyage to US in "Al Sultanah" in 1840

[Christopher Southcombe]

Greetings,

I  would like to make a general request for information about Ahmed 
Bin Na'umann's voyage to New York in "Al Sultanah" in 1840.

I am a marine artist-historian.  I have been commissioned to paint a 
large mural for His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Al Said.  This mural will 
be an atlas of the world and is to depict the major voyages of 
historical importance and interest in Oman's maritime past, including 
detailed images of the ships.   One voyage in particular is of 
special importance and interest. In 1840 the then ruler of Oman, 
Sultan Sa'id bin Sultan Al Bu-Sa'id, sent his envoy, His Excellency 
Ahmed bin Na'uman, on a state visit to New York to meet President Van 
Buren.   This was the first state visit of any ambassador from Oman 
to the United States.    The voyage was made in the sailing ship "Al 
Sultanah" and was an event of particular importance in Omani maritime 
history.

I have discovered very little information here in Oman about this 
voyage and the ship, except that there is now a model of the ship, 
"Al Sultanah", on display in the new Museum of the Land of 
Frankincence in Salalah.  Although of European design she was built 
in the Mazagon Dockyard in Bombay in 1833.   She arrived in New York 
in 1840, having taken only 87 days on passage from Zanzibar - 
particularly fast passage.

The model shows her square-rigged on the main and foremasts only, 
with only a gaff rigged "spanker" on the mizzen and no square-rig 
yards.   It is thought that "Al Sultanah" was later converted to a 
barque, as the model shows, with the yards stripped from the mizzen, 
but she was originally built as a 3-masted sailing ship and I'm 
fairly sure that she was still square-rigged on the mizzen when she 
arrived in New York.   That would appear to be so from Edward 
Mooney's portrait of Ahmed Bin Na'umann, painted during that visit, 
which appears on p.182 in the book "Oman - a Searing Nation".   He 
has painted "Al Sultanah" in the background in his portrait of Ahmed 
Bin Na'uman, and although there is little discernible detail there 
are clearly three square-rig yards on the mizzen.

I must depict the ship as she was during her voyage to the United 
States in 1840.   I have discovered that the American diplomat
Hermann Frederik Eilts, who served many years in the Middle East, 
wrote a book, published in 1962, about this voyage.  The book and 
subsequent reprints are out of print and I haven't been able to 
locate a copy.   Mr Eilts died last year, so I cannot contact him.

The American pictorial-historian E.Harper Johnson wrote and 
illustrated a book entitled "Oman A Pictorial Resuscitation" which 
was published by the Ministry of Information in 1997.  Unfortunately 
I believe that Harper Johnson is also no longer with us.

I would like to ask if any "OMAN-L" subscribers might have any 
information about this voyage, the ship, or any reference sources, or 
have old copies of either of these books they are prepared to 
sell.   I believe that somewhere there is a record of a photograph of 
the ship having been published in a New York newspaper, but I cannot 
track it down.  Photography was certainly in its infancy in those 
days, barely out its 'teens', but it is quite likely that a 
photograph of such a visit would exist.   Any help please?

Christopher Southcombe

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