In 1683 the Company's ship _President_ was attacked by the Muscat Arabs with two ships and four grabs, and fought a gallant action.
The grabs[3] were generally two-masted ships, from one hundred and fifty to three hundred tons burden, built to draw very little water, and excellent sailers, especially in the light winds prevalent on the Western coast.

They had no bowsprit, but the main-deck was continued into a long overhanging prow.

The favourite mode of using them was for two or three of them to run aboard their victim at the same time, and attack, sword in hand, along the prow.

Being built for fighting, and not for trade, they could sail round the clumsy merchantmen that hailed from the Thames, and, if pressed, could find safety in the shallow bays and mouths of rivers along the coast.

Three grabs grappled the _President_ at once, but the boarders were beaten back, and all three were blown up and sunk, on which the rest of the squadron made off.