During the night, the strong Bora wind made the sea rise: the heavily rolling ship dislocated many objects that hit the walls. The noise made us get up at 3 o’clock in the morning.

The morning weather, however, turned out beautiful and the sea was calmer but still choppy from a North-eastern wind. At 8 o’clock, we had arrived alongside Corfu and saw the wonderful Albanian mountains in the distance. In the afternoon, we passed Kephalonia that had never played a historical role but still had its own moving history. Only a small canal was separating it from Ithaka, known to classicists. We could make out the distinct shape of Kephalonia despite the distance of several miles from the coast; later appeared Zante, the flower of the Levant.

The setting sun created colorful effects that reminded me of the southern sky on the stony mountains on whose flanks little hamlets with olive orchards and vineyards were situated. In the evening I was surprised by a premature birthday celebration. A tattoo was beat. The crew shouted „Hurrah“, an improvised firework started. Rocket upon rocket went up into the star spangled sky straight as an arrow, while signal lights illuminated the deck clear as day.

Links

• Location: Zakynthos (Greece)
• ANNO – on 17.12.1892 in Austria’s newspapers. The Neue Freie Presse hotly discusses the government’s initiatives regarding certificates of proficiency (first introduced in 1883). In Paris, the Panama Canal Company scandal is in full force. Charles de Lesseps and his co-defendants were escorted to the Mazas prison on the evening of 16 December 1892. Ferdinand de Lesseps, staying at Le Chesnay Palace, will stay at liberty, for the moment. It is announced that Vienna’s first grand Hofburg ball will take place on 9 January 1893.
• Vienna’s K. und k. Hof-Burgtheater offered a comedy “Gönnerschaften” (Patronages). The K. und k. Hof-Operntheater played the comic opera “Gute Nacht, Herr Pantalon”.