In the most splendid weather we are floating on the deep blue sea towards Pulau Penang, to go from there to the island of Singapore. The sea is flat like an inland lake and despite the relatively great heat sometimes a bit of fresh air brings relief. Staying on the afterdeck, it is quite bearable; it is worse in the cabins and especially in the engine room where the thermometer displays an almost constant temperature of 70° Celsius.

As one boiler was damaged — it started to leak, the journey had to continue at a lower speed so that we only achieved nine miles per hour, which was by the way partly due to the fact that the coal obtained in India does not possess the heating power of the English bituminous coal.

In the afternoon I had to mourn the unfortunate loss of a member of my menagerie. My parrot, a tame animal that moved at liberty on deck, flew out into the air above the waves, exploring its flight skills, but tumbled into the sea and drowned before it could regain the ship’s deck.

A large four-masted sailing ship became visible, apparently heading for Rangoon.

Due to Good Friday there were neither music nor bell signals; the hours were indicated with a ratchet.

Links

• Location: At Sea to Singapore
• ANNO – on 31.03.1893 in Austria’s newspapers.
• The k.u.k. Hof-Burgtheater is closed until 2nd April, the k.u.k. Hof-Operntheater until 1st April.