The 43rd Infantry Regiment was a French infantry regiment which dated back to the creation in 1638 of the Régiment Royal des Vaisseaux - one of the regiments of the Maison militaire du roi de France created to serve on boats and in the colonies: all such regiments were, in 1791, given a number in the line-infantry order of battle meaning that they could be considered historically as the "ancestors" of the naval infantry regiments. Wikipedia