Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Pearling Industry (1914-1930)
One of the mixed pleasures of visiting a Gulf jewellery shop is to hold a natural pearl in the
palm of one's hand and see reflected in its gorgeous lustre the not so illustrious history of
the region.
Although pearls have come to be associated with Bahrain, they were harvested
throughout the Gulf - many cities, including Salalah, Doha and until recently Manama,
have famous modern monuments commemorating the lost industry. Each region gave rise
to a specific type of pearl. Pteria shells, or winged oysters, were extensively collected for
their bluish mother-of-pearl off the coast of Ras al-Khaimah. The large shells known in the
trade as 'Bombay Shells' were found in Omani waters and chiefly exported to London for
pearl inlay and decorative cutlery. With an annual export of 2000 tonnes, worth
UK£750,000, the most common pearl oyster of the Gulf was Pinctada radiata, collected off
the coasts of Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE.
Given the volume of the trade, it is not surprising that it supported the local economies
of much of the Gulf. Trading in pearls has existed since the 3rd millennium BC but it was
only in the 19th century, with the collapse of other trade routes in the region, that pearls as-
sumed their economic value. In the 1920s, with what seemed like an insatiable internation-
al appetite for pearls, the trade reached its apex.
The pearling season began each year in late May. Fishermen remained at sea, through the blistering sum-
mer, without interruption until mid-October. Supplies were ferried out by dhow.
Pearling was brutally hard work. Workers were divided into divers (who descended for
the shells with a weight between their feet) and pullers (who would hoist the divers back up
again by rope). Neither were paid wages. Instead, they would receive a share of the total
profits for the season. A puller's share was half to two-thirds of a diver's. Boat owners
would usually advance money to their workers at the beginning of the season. But the
divers were often unable to pay back these loans and got further into debt each year. As a
result they were often bound to a particular boat owner for life. If a diver died, his sons
were obliged to work off his debts. It was not unusual to see quite elderly men still working
as divers.
Suddenly, around 1930, the unthinkable happened. The Japanese invented a method of
culturing pearls. This, combined with the Great Depression, caused the bottom to drop out
of the international pearl market. The Peninsula's great pearling industry petered out almost
overnight; although the collapse brought great hardship to the Gulf in the decades before
the discovery of oil, few had the heart to regret it.
