Embarked once again with all personnel safely secured on board. Several of the enlisted men, who had been assumed to have been AWOL were actually found down in one of the workrooms on the lower levels where the engine room is. They said that they had returned late at night and stumbled on board without the watch seeing them. They had been carousing in a local bar for most of the day, drinking a particularly potent sample of Egyptian wine.
Once on board they headed for what they assumed were the stairs to their quarters, but blindly arrived where they were, totally disorientated. They shouted for help for a time but the area they were in was so protected that sound couldn't travel too easily. They gave up mostly due to delirium and tiredness and fell into a long, deep sleep.
It was some of the ship's engineers who found them and they were summarily brought in front of their commanding officer and sharply reprimanded. Ten rounds of the ship at a run interspersed with 100 pushups was the punishment. A tad harsh, by my standards but then Captain Fortescue-Smythe has a reputation for handing out stinkers, and then sitting watching his victims endure it all. He often sits with a bell, ringing it on each lap and cheering on the lads as if it were a local sporting carnival! Certainly not my cup of tea! Just a few days in the brig to sweat it out is enough punishment, I believe. But then Captain Fortescue-Smythe's grandfather used to be a member of the infamous Hellfire Club, so that says it all really.
Anyway, the Indian Queen set sail for the Suez Canal, which was a source of great excitement amongst the personnel as no-one amongst us had ever seen such a marvel of man's engineering before. We were practically all of us hanging on some part of the ship for the first few steps in our progress through the canal. It was only that Major-General Basilworth came up on deck and considered the men to be a little too idle for his liking that we would've been there to the end. However, he considered that all the officers should have the men cleaning their rifles and kit, and then doing a spot of drilling on one of the open deck areas at the stern. Dashed spoilsport if you ask me, but then that's life in the Camel Corps.
