在《青尼罗河 》 （ The Blue Nile）一书中，莫尔赫（Alan Moorehead）写道，远征军于是“先参加了壮行仪式和免不了的维多利亚时期国宴，与冗长的讲话先斗了一场。
In his book The Blue Nile, Alan Moorehead described the expedition thus: “It proceeds first to last with the decorum and heavy inevitability of a Victorian state banquet, complete with ponderous speeches.”