84 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



on deck. The morning was beautiful and the fresh W. S. 

 W. breeze filled every inch of our sails in a short time. 

 About five o'clock we reached the light-house of Neu- 

 werk, built upon a barren island, which is most of the 

 time under water. Within half an hour more the pilot 

 left us near the inner light-boat and about seven o'clock 

 we passed the outer light-boat in company with a large 

 Hamburg steamer, after which we went swinging up and 

 down the blue, foam-crowned waves of the North-Sea, 

 which had a gruesome effect on the health of our passen- 

 gers. Before we had caught sight of the reddish, glitter- 

 ing rock of Heligoland— about 7:45— our ship became the 

 scene of general seasickness. The steerage in particular 

 had become a real den of misery, which I entered but 

 once or twice during the day. There were six other pas- 

 sengers— Griinhagen among them— who escaped seasick- 

 ness altogether. Though we did not approach Heligo- 

 land closer than about two miles, we kept sight of it un- 

 til four o'clock in the afternoon. During the day we had 

 met numerous vessels sailing toward the Elbe and Weser, 

 but in the evening we passed right between a fleet of 

 eighteen Dutch, herring-fishing, boats, a fact which ap- 

 prised us of the short distance from the Coast of Holland. 

 While we had made considerable headway during this 

 day, it proved to be the only one during which we could 

 boast of fair wind as long as we remained in the North- 

 Sea; for we awakened the next morning to observe a 

 fresh western wind with cloudy sky. We approached 

 the channel by short tacks, with many ships in sight. On 

 Saturday, the 14th, we had beautiful weather but hardly 

 any wind; about nine o'clock we sighted twenty-two ships 

 which were surrounding us in the sun-kissed waters of 

 the North-Sea. About noon we were accosted by a Dutch 

 fishing-boat. The wind changed during the afternoon to 

 S. W., remaining the same till the following Sunday, 

 when— about four o'clock in the afternoon— we sighted 

 the English coast for the first time; the land sighted be- 

 ing the high sand-hills of Ramsgate. The sea ran high, 

 and the contrast between the grayish vellow color near 



