Discombobulated

I'm all aflutter and disoriented. I guess it's good that I didn't post a final canon chronology yet, because I was dithering about format. Now everything's upset and awry. But at least I know now where people are coming from with their various chronologies pushing Study in Scarlet to 1882, 1883, and even 1884. The old accepted 1881 date clashes with real life history, and now I'm muttering about the Orontes and Malabar in a daze.

It all began when I was reading STUD again, the first chapter where Watson says he returned to England on the "troopship Orontes" but does not give us any dates. I thought I remembered reading somewhere an October-November date for the Orontes in Klinger's Annotated Sherlock Holmes, but no, it's not in that book. It must be in one of the other Sherlockian books I've read. I at least know that I didn't hallucinate the date, because Trumbull's chronology gives a very precise date of Sunday, October 31 – Friday, November 26, 1880 on his timeline. Unfortunately, when I try to search online for a primary source about that ship, Wikipedia says that the HMS Orontes (1862) doesn't go to India at all. It sails to South Africa and the West Indies instead. What the hell? Do Sherlockians just have different references offline that online references do not?

So after searching around on Maiwand history sites, I found a link to an 1887 book by John Percy Groves about Watson's old regiment the 66th Foot which served at the battle of Maiwand. I didn't have time to read the whole book, though, and I focused mostly on Chapter 13, talking about the retreat from Maiwand. It says that after losing at Maiwand, the British troops were besieged at Kandahar for weeks, until General Roberts came to their aid in September:

The 66th marched from Kandahar on the 1st October, 1880, en route for India, and arrived at Quetta on the 13th. After a fortnight's rest at Quetta, the march was resumed; Pir Chowki was reached on the 3rd November, and from thence the regiment proceeded by rail to Kurrachee, where it arrived on the 7th November.

Major C. V. Oliver, who had been left at Kandahar to bring down a convoy of sick and wounded, died of small-pox, on the 10th October. [my emphasis added]

....

On the 19th January, 1881, the 66th under command of Lieutenant-Colonel S. G. C. Hogge, proceeded to Bombay, and sailed for England next day in H.M. troopship, Malabar.

The Malabar reached Portsmouth on the 18th February, and on the 19th the regiment disembarked, and proceeded to the Isle of Wight, to be stationed at Parkhurst.

....

We must now bring these brief records of the 66th to a conclusion; for we have reached that period in its history when — the territorial system of organization being introduced — the regiment ceased to be designated by its time-honoured number.

On the 1st July, 1881, the 66th Foot became the "2nd Battalion, Princess Charlotte of Wales' Berkshire Regiment"; at the same time, the green facings, which had been worn for upwards of 120 years, were changed to white.

So not only are they telling me that the Orontes has nothing to do with India, but also that Watson couldn't have returned to England until February 1881, assuming he was in the "convoy of sick and wounded." So that does not leave any time for him to live in a hotel a long time, then meet Holmes, then spend weeks studying him before the case arrives in March. It would be better to push that March 4th case to next year in 1882 at least.

But how could Watson have got the name of the ship wrong? And didn't he mention that he went to Peshawar hospital where he got enteric fever? Did the wounded soldiers from Maiwand go directly to Peshawar and not get stuck at the siege in Kandahar? And did they, or did they not, take the Orontes from Bombay to Portsmouth? I'm so confused.

Edited to add: I've resolved it, and edited the Wiki page to reflect that.