Trooping season

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and Troopships.

The Indian Trooping season generally began with troop ships leaving England in September, and ended with the last ships leaving India in March. This pattern was probably established once troop ships no longer sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and started using the "Overland Route", and then the Suez Canal after its opening in 1869.

The reasons for a restricted period were to restrict travel to the cooler months so that

  • troops were not travelling during the hot summer months in unventilated ships , particularly in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, when conditions could become dangerous.
  • unacclimatised troops from Britain were not travelling from the ports of Bombay or Karachi to their cantonments during the heat of an Indian summer.
In 1916, when normal procedures were disrupted due to the First World War, the "Karachi troop train incident" of the 5th June, 1916, resulted in the death of nineteen Territorial Troops due to heat stroke on a troop train between Karachi and Lahore.

Initially i troops changed ships at Suez, so there were different ships on the routes England to Suez, and Suez to India, but subsequently (and by 1886) ships sailed a round trip from England to India, approximately three weeks in each direction.

HM Indian Troopships

The Euphrates- class troopships were a group of five purpose-built troopships paid for by the Indian Government and launched in 1866-7. The sister-ships were the 'Crocodile', 'Euphrates', 'Jumna, 'Malabar' and 'Serapis'. Each ship could transport a full battalion of infantry with its married families, or about 1,200 people.

Before the opening of the Suez Canal the 'Crocodile' and 'Serapis' ran between England and Alexandria, whilst the other three ran from Suez to Bombay.

By 1894, four of the five naval troopers were laid up while two P&O ships, 'Victoria' and 'Britannia' had a trial as troopers on charter. The two newcomers soon demonstrated that they could make a better job of it than the old naval ships and 'Crocodile' and her sisters were disposed of in 1896[1]

Movements of Troopship Crocodile 1886-1888

1886 06th Oct Sailed Portsmouth for Bombay;
02nd Nov Arrived Bombay; 13th Nov Sailed Bombay for Portsmouth via Suez
08th Dec Arrived Portsmouth; 22nd Dec Sailed Portsmouth for Egypt; 1887, 08th Jan Sailed Suez for Bombay;
14th Feb Sailed Bombay for Portsmouth;
11th Mar Arrived Portsmouth; 17th Mar Capt. Richard Evans assumed Command. End of trooping season.
07th Sep Sailed Portsmouth for Bombay via Queenstown. Commencement of trooping season.
05th Oct Arrived Bombay; 15th Oct Sailed Bombay;
10th Nov Arrived Portsmouth; 23rd Nov Sailed Portsmouth for Bombay;
20th Dec Arrived Bombay; 31st Dec Sailed Bombay
1888, 25th Jan Arrived Portsmouth; 08th Feb Sailed Portsmouth for Bombay via Plymouth;
07th Mar Arrived Bombay; 17th Mar Sailed Bombay
12th Apr Arrived Portsmouth
07th Sep Sailed Portsmouth for Bombay[2]

1904-05 Trooping Season

"The Indian Trooping season will begin in September… The following are approximately the dates on which the ships will start from Southampton and arrive there on their return.

1. September 8-November 3
2. September 30-November 12
3. October 1-November 24
4. October 11-December 8
5. November 15-January 6, 1905
6. November 23-January 18, 1905
7. December 6-January 28, 1905
8. December 17-February 8, 1905
9. January 17, 1905-March 11
10. January 28, 1905-March 28
11. February 7, 1905- April 5
12. February 18, 1905-April 13" [3]

External links

Historical books online

  • Periods for embarkation page 239 The Queen's Regulations and Orders for the Army 1868 Google Books
  • "Hot weather precautions" Volume II [2], Part I - Annual report on the health of the army in India for the year 1939, page 107 National Library of Scotland “ Medical History of British India”

References

  1. ↑ Preece, Nigel HM Indian Troopship Crocodile Rootsweb India Mailing List 28 January 2000. Retrieved 26 February, 2015
  2. ↑ qprdave HMS Crocodile World Naval Ships Forum 09 January 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2015
  3. ↑ "Chaplains for Troopships" page 15 The Tablet, 20th August 1904
  4. ↑ A History of the British India Steam Navigation Company Limited , pages 17 and 62. html version, pdf rakaia.co.uk.
  5. ↑ A History of the British India Steam Navigation Company Limited, page 62.

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