The South wind became stiffer and stiffer. The huge sea waves made it questionable whether church services could be held. Only our brave chaplain did not let himself be intimidated and read mass on the altar which was surmounted by the standard, despite the fact that all lights went out and the candelabra tumbled down.

In the afternoon the islands of Jebel Teir und Zebayir came into view, naked empty islands without any vegetation. Again some flying fishes crossed our path like silver stars. Of birds, I observed besides the common seagulls multiple flocks of swifts.

The sea grew more and more violent; wave upon wave crashed onto the bridge on which we, completely drenched, stayed during nearly the whole evening and admired the impressive play of waves.

Links

• Location: Red Sea
• ANNO – on 25.12.1892 in Austria’s newspapers. On 22 pages, the Wiener Zeitung lists the army promotions separated by rank and branch of service. The Wiener Salonblatt notes that the Emperor is spending Christmas with his son-in-law, Prince Leopold of Bavaria, in Munich while the Empress departed from Palermo, Italy, to her villa Achilleïon on Corfu.
• It also informs its readers about the progress of Franz Ferdinand’s journey as well as fellow passenger Archduke Leopold Ferdinand (who will be recalled shortly after Franz Ferdinand’s plea to the Emperor to do so). The Salonblatt states that they arrived in Port Said on 20 December and departed the following day to Colombo (Ceylon) . It pledges to provide a weekly update about the journey.