COMMANDER KEPPEL

1898 Class Armoured Screw Gunboats (3): the Sultan, the Melik, the Sheikh

each carrying: 2 Nordenfeldt guns
1 quick-firing 12-pounder gun
1 Howitzer
4 Maxims

1896 Class Armoured Screw Gunboats (3): the Fateh, The Naser, the Zafir

each carrying: 1 quick-firing 12-pounder gun
2 6-pounder guns
4 Maxims

Old Class Armoured Stern-wheel Gunboats (4): the Tamai, the Hafir*,
the Abu Klea, the Metemma

each carrying: 1 12-pounder gun
2 Maxim-Nordenfeldt guns

Steam Transport

5 Steamers: The Dal, The Akasha, the Tahra, The Okma, the Kaibar

[*The steamer El Teb, wrecked at the Fourth Cataract in 1897, had been
refloated, and to change the luck was renamed Hafir.]

The total strength of the Expeditionary Force amounted to 8,200 British
and 17,600 Egyptian soldiers, with 44 guns and 20 Maxims on land, with
36 guns and 24 Maxims on the river, and with 2,469 horses, 896 mules,
3,524 camels, and 229 donkeys, besides followers and private animals.

While the army were to move along the west bank of the river--the
Omdurman side--a force of Arab irregulars, formed from the friendly
tribes, would march along the east bank and clear it of any Dervishes.
All the debris which the Egyptian advance had broken off the Dervish
Empire was thus to be hurled against that falling State. Eager for
plunder, anxious to be on the winning side, Sheikhs and Emirs from every
tribe in the Military Soudan had hurried, with what following the years
of war had left them, to Wad Hamed. On the 26th of August the force of
irregulars numbered about 2,500 men, principally Jaalin survivors, but
also comprising bands and individuals of Bisharin; of Hadendoa from
Suakin; of Shukria, the camel-breeders; of Batahin, who had suffered
a bloody diminution at the Khalifa's hands; of Shaiggia, Gordon's
vexatious allies; and lastly some Gellilab Arabs under a reputed son of
Zubehr Pasha. The command of the whole motley force was given to Major
Stuart-Wortley, Lieutenant Wood accompanying him as Staff Officer; and
the position of these officers among the cowed and untrustworthy Arabs
was one of considerable peril.

While the infantry divisions were marching round the heights of Shabluka
to the camp opposite Royan island, the steamers and gunboats ascended