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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 in 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 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.
Each season generally there were only two of the twelve or so voyages which called at Aden on the way out to India and three on the way back. The extra one coming from India was needed to effect the annual relief of the British infantry battalion in Aden.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20141117074608/http://www.peterpickering.com/aden/page282/page303/page336/page336.html Troopships] from "Aden in Days of Empire". peterpickering.com/aden, now archived</ref>
==Movements of Crocodile 1886-1888==
:'''1886''' 06th <br>:6th Oct Sailed Portsmouth for Bombay;:02nd 2nd Nov Arrived Bombay; :13th Nov Sailed Bombay for Portsmouth via Suez:08th 8th Dec Arrived Portsmouth; :22nd Dec Sailed Portsmouth for Egypt; <br> :'''1887''', 08th <br>:8th 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 7th Sep Sailed Portsmouth for Bombay via Queenstown. Commencement of trooping season.:05th 5th 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''', <br>:25th Jan Arrived Portsmouth; :08th Feb Sailed Portsmouth for Bombay via Plymouth;:07th 7th Mar Arrived Bombay; :17th Mar Sailed Bombay
:12th Apr Arrived Portsmouth
:07th 7th Sep Sailed Portsmouth for Bombay<ref>qprdave [http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8957 HMS Crocodile] ''World Naval Ships Forum'' 09 9 January 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2015</ref>
==1904-05 Trooping Season==
