| DECEMBER 1895 | |||
| Tuesday, 10th | Left home at 9.15 a.m. and Edinburgh at 10. York at 5 p.m. Arrived Harwich 8 p.m. Left Harwich for Antwerp 10 p.m. Met Skuse and Williams on board ‘Cambridge’. | ||
| ⚪ | Wednesday, llth | Arrived Antwerp 10 a.m. and proceeded to ‘British Princess’ and arrived on board without accident about 11.50 a.m. There was no dinner for us. The remainder of the day was spent in stowing boxes away etc. Raining too hard to go ashore. | |
| Thursday, 12th | Very cold and lots of rain. Started work today, but did not do much. Had a walk round the town at night. The streets are very dirty, and there is hardly a lamp to light them. | ||
| Friday, 13th | “Turned to” as soon as it was light which was about 7 a.m. Had coffee then, and breakfast at 9. Dinner at 1. Finished work at 5 and had tea. Very cold. Snow on deck. Went ashore at night. | ||
| Saturday, 14th | Turned to and knocked off about the same time. Did not go ashore. Wrote letters instead. Snowing and raining all day. | ||
| Sunday, 15th | We had all day to ourselves and celebrated it by staying in our bunks till dinner. Went ashore in the afternoon and turned in after tea. Exceedingly cold and raining hard all day. | ||
| Monday, 16th | After dinner we went along with the third mate to the water clerks. It rained too hard to go ashore. | ||
| Tuesday, 17th | Tonight we went to ‘Mother Dooly's’ and had music, songs, etc. washed down with lemonade. Spent a very enjoyable evening. | ||
| Wednesday, 18th | Signed our names at the British Consulate and went to ‘Mother Dooly's’ again at night. Had another very pleasant evening. | ||
| Thursday, 19th | This is our last night in Antwerp. So spent the night at ‘Mother Dooly's’ and then went to a place and had a great feast. Had fine evening. Very cold. | ||
| Friday, 20th | Were turned out much earlier this morning and have worked hard all day. We left Africa dock at 7 a.m, and towed down to Wilson dock. Left Wilson dock at 4 p.m. and dropped anchor in the basin three miles out. Anchor watch. I had the 2 to 4 a.m. Snowing hard all day. | ||
| Saturday, 21st | Left the basin at 6 a.m. and towed down the river till about 1 p.m. when we stopped and loaded dynamite. Started again at 5 p.m. and dropped anchor off Flushing at 9 p.m. Fine weather with hard frost. | ||
| Sunday, 22nd | Left Flushing about 11 a. m. The‘John Bull’and river pilot left us at 10 p.m. We had then all sail set with a fine breeze. We are making about 8 knots. The watches start tonight. Weather fine. | ||
| ⚪ | Monday, 23rd | We are now running down channel at about 9 knots. It is getting very windy, and I kind of sick. This afternoon we saw the last of England namely Beachy Head bearing N ½ W. | |
| Tuesday, 24th | Have cleared the channel. Rough. 1 am a complete waster today, not fit for anything but the scuppers. Ship is now rolling heavily. Off our course a little, but have done exceptionally well. | ||
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