. The Royal Navy . services that the Navyrendered in the landing of the expeditionary forcefrom India, which comprised nearly 12,000 troops,4000 of them being British, and some 14,000 campfollowers. The small brigade that actually sharedin the march to Magdala was comprised of eighty-three men with twelve 12-pounder rocket tubes intwo batteries. This brigade was under the com-mand of Commander Fellows, of the Dryad, andin the fight in which King Theodores troops werecompletely defeated outside Magdala, and whichbrought the campaign to an end, it was the rocketfire of the blue-jackets that forc
. The Royal Navy . services that the Navyrendered in the landing of the expeditionary forcefrom India, which comprised nearly 12,000 troops,4000 of them being British, and some 14,000 campfollowers. The small brigade that actually sharedin the march to Magdala was comprised of eighty-three men with twelve 12-pounder rocket tubes intwo batteries. This brigade was under the com-mand of Commander Fellows, of the Dryad, andin the fight in which King Theodores troops werecompletely defeated outside Magdala, and whichbrought the campaign to an end, it was the rocketfire of the blue-jackets that forced the Abyssiniangunners to abandon their guns, which a day ortwo afterwards were quietly taken possession of bythree officers and eight men. As giving some ideaof the transport labours that entailed upon theNavy, it may be stated that 235 sailing ships and94 steamers were engaged in the transport ofthe expedition. Besides the troops and followers THE FIRST BRITISH SEAGOING IRONCLAD, WARRIOR 1863 i> -^ I. NAVY OF STEAM AND STEEL 255 36,000 transport animals had to be disembarked, ofwhich nearly 6000 were camels. The re-embarka-tion, however, presented nothing like as much diffi-culty, for the vast mass of the unfortunate transportanimals did not survive the arduous campaign. Only7500 had to be re-embarked, and of the thousandsof camels only 80 survived to return to India. The next campaign in which the Navy took partwas the Ashanti War, 1873-4. When the fierceand warlike savages of King Coffee crossed thePrah early in 1873 and swept the Fanti countrywith fire and sword, both the towns of Elmina andCape Coast Castle, with such Europeans as were inthem, were in very serious danger. Luckily theBarracouta, Captain the Hon. E. R. Freemantle(now Admiral, , , and Rear-Admiralof the United Kingdom), was on the spot, and theNavy was able to materially reinforce the detach-ment of the 2nd West Indian Regiment and thefew Houssas that garrisoned Cape Coast
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectgreatbritainroyalnav
