Persian Gulf Campaign of 1809 - Aftermath

Aftermath

The operation succeeded in its aim of reducing French influence in Oman and in dissuading the political forces in the region from encouraging attacks on British shipping, but it was unable to totally halt piracy in the Persian Gulf. By 1811, when much of the Royal Navy and HEIC forces in the Indian Ocean were diverted to Java, the pirates had returned in force, although their destructive actions were weaker than before and rarely strayed into the Arabian Sea. Ultimately, it was not until the forces of the Ottoman Empire seized Medina in 1812, that some measure of control could be exerted over the pirates of the Arabian peninsula. Subsequent British intervention, both military and diplomatic, also reduced the threat from piracy during the nineteenth century.

The campaign had a significant effect on British cartography of the region. Wainwright reported that the available charts of the Persian Gulf were inaccurate or incomplete, thus allowing pirate ships to hide from his squadron in uncharted inlets. The Bombay Marine had long been aware of this problem and had been developing charts of the region in the years leading up to the campaign, under David Ewen Bartholomew, who had been on Sapphire during Corbet's mission to the region and whose charts were published in 1810 as a response to these problems.