noon
Colin , who had good eyesight , and who was always eager to be up and doing , volunteered to go to the crow 's - nest and keep a lookout for the dorsal fin of a swordfish , which , he was told , could be seen a couple of miles away . There was no advantage in going aloft , however , until toward noon , when , the water being still , the swordfish come up to sun themselves . Once Colin was quite sure that he saw a swordfish , but just as he was about to shout , there flashed across his mind a sentence that he had read somewhere of the likelihood of confusing a shark 's fin with that of a swordfish , and soon he was able to make out that it was a shark . As it grew toward noon and the sun 's rays beat directly on him , Colin began to realize that sitting on a scantling two inches by four at the top of a schooner 's mast in a bobbing sea , under a broiling sun , was a long way from being a soft snap , but he would have scorned to make a complaint . He was more than glad , though , when the cook hailed all hands to dinner , and one of the sailors went to the crow 's - nest . At dinner Colin turned the conversation to swordfish and their ways . `` There 's one thing I do n't quite understand , Dr. Jimson , '' he asked , `` is a spear-fish the same as a swordfish , only that the weapon is shorter ? ''