ten o'clock
I therefore again , and for the last time during that cruise , dined with my father , after which he accompanied me to the Hard , bade me a most affectionate good-bye , and stood watching the wherry which was conveying me off to the ship , until the boat passed out of the harbour and we vanished from his sight . Not until long afterward did I know that , instead of starting for home the next morning , as he had talked of doing , he crossed over to Gosport the first thing after breakfast , walked to Haslar , and stationed himself on the beach at Gilkicker Point , watching the frigate until she had got under way and passed out of sight to the southward and eastward . The next morning , at daylight , Blue Peter was hoisted at the fore-royal masthead and a gun fired as a signal that the ship was about to sail ; boats were hoisted in and stowed , stock was brought alongside , and the order was given to clear the ship of strangers -- sailors ' wives and sweethearts who had come off to say a last good-bye , bumboat women who were making a final desperate effort to obtain a settlement of their accounts , and tradesmen of all kinds engaged upon the same errand or intent upon palming off upon the men otherwise unsaleable stock . Shortly after ten o'clock Captain Vavassour came on board , immediately after which the hands were piped to `` up anchor '' ; and within half-an-hour we were under way and standing out toward Saint Helens , under all plain sail , before a light northerly breeze . We had not been under way a quarter of an hour before it became apparent to everybody on board that the _ Europa _ was going to more than justify the exceedingly favourable opinion that we had already formed of her ; for , light as was the wind , she slid through the water at a speed that fairly astonished us , her keen stem cleaving the short Channel surges cleanly and with very little noise or fuss , and leaving behind her a wake so smooth and so little disturbed that at a distance of a quarter of a mile it vanished altogether . And when , an hour or so later , having made a good offing , the skipper ordered her to be hauled to the wind on a taut bowline for a short time , to test her speed under those conditions , and then put her about , she went to windward and tacked like a yacht . Our cruising-ground was a fairly extensive one , stretching from the longitude of Cape la Hague on the one hand to longitude 10 degrees West on the other , and from latitude 50 degrees North to Cape Finisterre ; in other words , it embraced the chops of the Channel and the whole of the Bay of Biscay ; and our duty was to protect British commerce on the high seas , and harry the enemy generally .