The 1940 Divers’ Law: Aboard Two Weeks Before the Fleet Sailed

In 1940 the ruler of Kuwait, Ahmad Al-Jabir Al-Sabah, put his signature to a short code of labour law. It governed one industry only — pearl diving — and it opened with a line of purpose: the reform of the country and its people. It had been proposed to him by the head of the Shura Council.

Only one season was regulated

Pearling was not a single voyage. There was a short April dive close to shore in cold water, the khanjiya; the great dive, which took the large vessels to the far banks and was the official season; a return dive in October; and a brief November one. Only the great dive fell under the law, because only it had fixed dates for sailing and for the fleet’s return. In the smaller dives a diver kept his own share.

What the articles say

The code begins on land. Article one requires every sailor to present himself to his nakhoda, the master of the vessel, a fortnight before the official sailing, to work on fitting out the boat. The obligation follows him abroad: a man outside Kuwait is bound by it too, and failing to appear without lawful excuse is punishable.

Then the money. A sailor drew an advance before the season and left most of it with his family. If he took the advance and did not sail, he repaid it and paid a penalty fixed by the government at the season’s close. If he turned up a month or more late, the nakhoda chose: take the penalty, or hand the man half his advance and ship him out to the vessel — an option that expired once half the season had passed. A man who deserted twice and was caught could not be released except on a surety who would pay for him.

Illness, and pretending to be ill

Article nine turns from punishment to care. A sick sailor had to be treated aboard as far as the nakhoda could manage, and sent home if he could not remain at sea; on arrival he was to present himself to a doctor, and to return to his nakhoda once he recovered. The next article closes the door on the obvious dodge: a man found on examination to have nothing wrong with him faced punishment and an immediate return to the boat.

Why it was written down

Before 1940 disputes between divers and masters were settled by custom and by whoever people took them to. The code moved the argument onto paper and left the courts and the ruler with the last word. Read now, it is a working document: months at sea, money paid in advance, and an account settled after the fleet came home.

Photograph: the wooden-boat harbour in Kuwait City — a present-day picture, not one from the pearling era. Photograph by Zairon, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: the text of the 1940 divers’ law as reproduced by Saif Marzouq Al-Shamlan in his history of pearl diving in Kuwait and the Gulf (volume two), and the history of shipbuilding in Kuwait by Najat Abdulqader Al-Jassim Al-Qinaie and Badr Al-Din Abbas Al-Khusousi, via the Kuwait History forum.