On the morning of May 17, Maximilian and Bodmer took a stroll along the pier near Helvoet, where Bodmer made a sketch of one of the gunboats lying in the ship channel. In the afternoon the brig Janus arrived. Maximilian, Bodmer, and Dreidoppel boarded her that evening around nine o'clock, and she weighed anchor at three in the morning of May 18.

Prince Maximillian's party reached Helvoet on May 15, and found lodgings at Hobson's an English packet hotel. While awaiting the arrival of the American ship Janus to take them across the Atlantic, they spent two days inspecting the town and its environs. Among the ships anchored at Helvoet at this time was the frigate Adriana. Bodmer produced a small study in watercolor of this vessel on May 16.