nine
o'clock
At any rate , it was an accident , in which the several-named , including Possum , played their respective parts . To begin at the beginning . Two weeks have elapsed since we crossed 50 , and we are now in 37 -- the same latitude as San Francisco , or , to be correct , we are as far south of the equator as San Francisco is north of it . The trouble was precipitated yesterday morning shortly after nine o'clock , and Possum started the chain of events that culminated in downright mutiny . It was Mr. Mellaire 's watch , and he was standing on the bridge , directly under the mizzen-top , giving orders to Sundry Buyers , who , with Arthur Deacon and the Maltese Cockney , was doing rigging work aloft . Get the picture and the situation in all its ridiculousness . Mr. Pike , thermometer in hand , was coming back along the bridge from taking the temperature of the coal in the for ` ard hold .