The vessels and machinery
had been constructed and erected in the works in London; they were then
marked, numbered, and taken to pieces, and after being shipped to
Alexandria and transported to the front were finally put together at
Kosheh. Although in a journey of 4,000 miles they were seven times
transhipped, not a single important piece was lost.
The convenience of Kosheh on the clear waterway, and the dirty condition
of Firket, were in themselves sufficient reasons for the change of camp;
but another and graver cause lay behind. During the month of June an
epidemic of cholera began to creep up the Nile from Cairo. On the 29th
there were some cases at Assuan. On the 30th it reached Wady Halfa.
In consequence of this the North Staffordshire Regiment marched into camp
at Gemai. Their three months' occupation of the town had not improved
their health or their spirits. During the sixteen-mile march along the
railway track to Gemai the first fatal case occurred, and thereafter the
sickness clung to the regiment until the middle of August, causing
continual deaths.
The cholera spread steadily southward up the river, claiming successive
victims in each camp. In the second week of July it reached the new camp
at Kosheh, whence all possible precautions to exclude it had proved vain.
The epidemic was at first of a virulent form. As is usual, when it had
expended its destructive energy, the recoveries became more frequent.
Pages:
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217