noon
There was nothing for it , however , but to toil on , hour after hour , with ever-decreasing strength ; the only redeeming feature of our case being the knowledge that , should we now chance to sight a ship , she could not possibly sail away from us so long as the calm lasted . But when the calm had continued for twenty-four hours , during which we pulled continuously to the eastward , relieving each other at frequent intervals , this reflection almost ceased to afford us any comfort , for we found that short commons and hard work together were exhausting our strength with such alarming rapidity that , unless we sighted the hoped - for sail pretty speedily , we should have no strength left with which to pull to her . And when another twelve hours had passed over our heads , and another cloudless , breathless , blazing morning had dawned upon us , the men with one accord laid in their oars , protesting their utter inability to any longer keep up the exhausting work of pulling the boat I argued with , entreated , and threatened them alternately , without avail ; they turned a deaf ear to me , and lay down in the bottom of the boat , where they almost instantly fell into a restless , troubled sleep . All , that is to say , except Dumaresq , who recognised as clearly as I did the vital necessity for us to push onward as speedily as possible ; after discussing the situation for a while , therefore , we threw over a couple of oars , and , placing the boat compass between my feet where I could see it , paddled wearily and painfully onward until noon , when we ceased , that I might have an opportunity to take an observation for the determination of our latitude . While I was still engaged upon this operation the men awoke ; and as soon as I had ascertained our latitude we went to dinner ; if dinner that could be called which consisted of a small cube of raw meat , measuring about an inch each way , and as much tepid , fetid water as would half-fill the neck of a rum-bottle that had been broken off from the body to serve as a measure . After dinner the men again stretched themselves out , either in the bottom of the boat or on the thwarts , and once more sought surcease of suffering in sleep ; and again Dumaresq and I threw out our oars and toiled at them until sunset . But it was cruel work , and nothing short of such urgent necessity as ours would have induced me to do it .