In the morning we saw the islands of Timor and Kisser in the distance, the former on starboard, the latter on port. At the northeastern end of Timor north of the island of (Nusa, Noesa) Besi we entered into the Arafura sea, steering to the south of the islands of Letti, Moa and Leikor. Towards noon the island of Sermata also became visible; then we were fully on the open sea and took a direct course to the Torres strait that connects the Indian with the Pacific Ocean.

The day was beautiful and clear. South of Sermata there was a slight Eastern monsoon that grew in intensity with time but never crossed over a 4 in the wind force scale. The sea was only moderately choppy.

During the day nothing remarkable happened. Life on board continued as usual. We occupied ourselves mostly by reading travel literature and studied maps to thereby improve our knowledge of Australia which we were bound to enter soon.

Sometimes seagulls, frigate birds as well as smaller black petrels flew by. When I shot at a frigate bird flying high above the ship, it let, apparently hit, drop a flying fish out of its beak. The fish soon wandered into an alcohol bath for preservation. In the Contre-Carré the cadets caught a flying fish of a new species with beautiful intensive black yellow pectoral fins. The fish had flown in through a side window.

In the evening again a beautiful moon shine.

Links

• Location: near Sermata island
• ANNO – on  02.05.1893 in Austria’s newspapers. On 1 May, the Chicago world exhibition was officially opened by President Cleveland. In Vienna, meanwhile, cyclists need protection from aggressive school boys. The police informs that mischievous kids will be prosecuted. German nationalists protested against the performance of a Czech piece in the Josephstädter Theater.
• The k.u.k. Hof-Burgtheater is playing the comedy „Der Bibliothekar“, while the k.u.k. Hof-Operntheater is performing the opera “Die Königin von Saba”.