start. H---- had
not finished his work at Norderney, so I was alone on board for
Reuter. Moreover the buoys to guide us in our course were not placed,
and the captain had very vague ideas about keeping his course; so I
had to do a good deal, and only lay down as I was for two hours in the
night. I managed to run the course perfectly. Everything went well,
and we found Norderney just where we wanted it next afternoon, and if
the shore-end had been laid, could have finished there and then,
October 1st. But when we got to Norderney, we found the _Caroline_
with shore-end lying apparently aground, and could not understand her
signals; so we had to anchor suddenly, and I went off in a small boat
with the captain to the _Caroline_. It was cold by this time, and my
arm was rather stiff, and I was tired; I hauled myself up on board the
_Caroline_ by a rope, and found H---- and two men on board. All the
rest were trying to get the shore-end on shore, but had failed, and
apparently had stuck on shore, and the waves were getting up. We had
anchored in the right place, and next morning we hoped the shore-end
would be laid, so we had only to go back. It was of course still
colder, and quite night. I went to bed and hoped to sleep, but, alas,
the rheumatism got into the joints and caused me terrible pain, so
that I could not sleep. I bore it as long as I could in order to
disturb no one, for all were tired; but at last I could bear it no
longer, and I managed to wake the steward, and got a mustard poultice,
which took the pain from the shoulder; but then the elbow got very
bad, and I had to call the second steward and get a second poultice,
and then it was daylight, and I felt very ill and feverish. The sea
was now rather rough--too rough rather for small boats, but luckily a
sort of thing called a scoot came out, and we got on board her with
some trouble, and got on shore after a good tossing about, which made
us all sea-sick. The cable sent from the _Caroline_ was just 60 yards
too short, and did not reach the shore, so although the _Caroline_ did
make the splice late that night, we could neither test nor speak.
Reuter was at Norderney, and I had to do the best I could, which was
not much, and went to bed early; I thought I should never sleep again,
but in sheer desperation got up in the middle of the night and gulped
a lot of raw whisky, and slept at last. But not