Towards noon we could see the shape of Indian mountains in the mist clouded distance.

An entertaining sport is the hunting of rays which kept me on the bridge at that hour. Seven of these flat, nearly 2 m long creatures swam portside by us at such a little depth that I could distinguish the dark brown backs from the greenish white fluorescing underside and hoped to hunt down one of them. At first I tried it with a shotgun – to no effect whatsoever then with a rifle shot which very finely painted a large ray. Unfortunately, the all too fast speed of the ship did not permit me to observe whether the bullet had killed it.

In the afternoon, the wind renewed itself, this time coming from the north. The sea became more violent and towards evening rather uncomfortable. The ship rolled greatly and the whole deck was repeatedly flooded by the sea.

Links

• Location: near India
• ANNO – on 04.01.1893 in Austria’s newspapers. The Neue Freie Presse notes that Vienna is fighting against heavy snowfall that is interrupting traffic. Coachmen, workers and the homeless are suffering greatly from the exposure to the snow and the low temperatures.
• The Pope sent the Austrian Emperor telegraphic New Year’s greetings. In Paris, meanwhile, the government prohibited all revolutionary public meetings in the city and the provinces.
• The k.u.k. Hof-Burgtheater performed Emile de Girardin’s 1885 comedy „Lady Tartuffe“ while the k.u.k. Hof-Operntheater offered Luigi Manzotti’s ballet „Excelsior“.

Quietly, SMS Elisabeth floats across the blue sea at a velocity of 12 miles per hour. We were wishfully expecting the arrival at Colombo. Near the evening, the lighthouse of Minicoy on the Lakedives became visible and with the telescope we could distinguish some of the Coral Islands of the Lakedives and Maledives group.

Links

• Location: near Minicoy, Indian Ocean
• ANNO – on 03.01.1893 in Austria’s newspapers. Das Vaterland informs about the escalating trade war between France and Switzerland. After the failure of coming to a trade agreement, Switzerland starts charging import duties on key French products such as wine. The beneficiaries of this small trade war will be the Italian wine producers.
• The United States of America is already preparing the inauguration of its new president Grover Cleveland on 4 March 1893. Incidentally, Grover Cleveland had been president once before from 1885 to 1889, so the ceremony is a repetition for him.