A History of the 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own)

A History of the 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own) is a book by J. W. Fortescue. The history of the regiment is proudly and reverently inscribed to the memory of Major-General James Wolfe, in whose honour the regiment was raised by his comrade in arms John Hale. The preface says the history was compiled at the request of the Colonel and Officers of the Seventeenth Lancers, and that the materials in possession of the Regiment are unfortunately very scanty.

The text says hired transports seem generally to have been thoroughly bad ships. The text gives as the first regulation that the ship is to be frequently fumigated with brimstone, sawdust, or wet gunpowder. The text says that of the non-commissioned officers and men who went out with the regiment to the Zulu War in 1879, just thirty returned with it in 1890. The text says the ships, many of them badly battered, appeared at the appointed rendezvous, the Island of Tybee, off the coast of Georgia, having spent five weeks over a voyage generally reckoned to last ten days.