C.R. Low's work has never been surpassed as a history of the maritime arm of India's foreign policy. First published in 1877, it was out of print for many years, but it has remained the basis for studies of campaigns and exploration wherever the Bombay Marine operated, in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Laccadives, Maldives and west coast of India, the Andamans, Java and Burma. This is a facsimile reprint of the two-volume 1877 edition. Its primary value now is in recording the history of the British presence in the Gulf - where the Bombay Marine served as police force, mail carrier, explorer, ethnographer, surveyor and (when necessary) strike force over three centuries - in particular while British relations with the Gulf shaikhdoms were being consolidated. Included are detailed accounts of the hydrographic surveys by the Indian Navy, including the surveys of the Persian Gulf.
