nine o'clock
By the time that George regained the deck , the _ Aurora _ had crept to a distance of about four miles from the _ Princess Royal _ . The unfortunate craft was by that time blazing fiercely fore and aft , the fire having at last reached her store-room , in which there was a considerable quantity of highly inflammable material ; and half an hour afterwards her powder-magazine -LRB- almost every ship of any size in those days was provided with a magazine -RRB- exploded ; and the charred fragments of half-consumed timber , which were widely scattered over the now sleepily heaving surface of the sea , alone remained as relics of the once noble and stately ship , the destruction of which had been the last link in a chain of disastrous occurrences resulting primarily from the overbearing , tyrannical , and imprudent behaviour of her officers . With the appearance of the sun above the horizon the clouds gradually disappeared , the wind dropped , the surface of the ocean became like heaving oil ; and the _ Aurora _ , losing steerage-way , rolled almost gunwale-to , with her canvas flapping loudly and monotonously against her masts . About two bells -LRB- or nine o'clock -RRB- one of the hands , upon being sent aloft to `` grease down , '' reported a sail in the southern quarter , and on the usual inquiry being put to him , as to what he made her out to be , he replied that she was a small topsail-schooner . `` A small topsail-schooner ! '' muttered George . `` I wonder what she can be ; I can not remember having seen any such craft in the fleet .