The navigation was very difficult as in the previous pitch-black nights. At least some prominent islands offered excellent direction markers such as Soeroetoe and Karimata that we passed towards 1 o’clock in the night. Exactly at noon we crossed for the second time the equator and namely at 108° 20′ 2″ Eastern latitude but this time in consideration of the sick on board without song and noise, even though we had planned to celebrate the day with a shooting competition that now had been cancelled.

Soon after having crossed the equator we steered between Direction Island and Pulo Datoe and were approaching the Api passage towards evening.

As the island of Meroendoeny and Cape Api are low and the currents in the Api passage at times quite strong and furthermore a rainstorm obscured all visibility we could not dare to cross the narrow passage and thus had to anchor shortly after 10 Uhr o’clock near Tandjong Api.

The maps of Dutch origin that we had to use in these seas were partly very unreliable as the coasts had only partially been sounded and points of direction on land had only been noted in limited numbers. Thus, for example in the Api passage between the groups of the North and South Xatoena islands, the name of the Diana reef is inscribed but neither its exact position nor its surroundings have been sounded. Instead a laconic warning notes the lack of detailed information: „Hier waarschijnlijk nog eenige Gevaaren.“ (Here probably some more dangerous locations).

Links

• Location: near Pulo Datoe/Datu
• ANNO – on 08.07.1893 in Austria’s newspapers.
• The k.u.k. Hof-Burgtheater is playing „Der Hüttenbesitzer“. The k.u.k. Hof-Operntheater is closed from 1 June to 19 July.