twelve o'clock
During this interval I and my brother cadets had to attend `` school '' every morning from half-past 9 o'clock to 11:30 in the captain 's outer cabin under the poop , where the chaplain , who also filled the post of naval instructor , officiated as schoolmaster-in-chief , teaching us mathematics and the theory of navigation , as well as seeing that we kept up our logs , which Captain Farmer himself inspected once a week , to make certain that the chaplain , on his part , attended to his duty . We got on very well with the Reverend Mr Smythe , who had all his longshore starchiness knocked out of him by his long bout of sea-sickness , the poor man having been confined to his bunk and completely prostrate with the fell malady from the hour that we weighed anchor at Plymouth until we `` brought up '' at Madeira . I should not , perhaps , have made use of this term , as it savours of tautology , the unfortunate chaplain having been industriously occupied in doing little else save `` bringing up '' all the time ; especially when we were pitching and rolling in the Bay of Biscay ! Every day , too , at a quarter of an hour before noon , we had to muster on the poop , where , under the tutelage of the master , Mr Quadrant , we watched for the dip of the sun ; and , as soon as the master reported that it was twelve o'clock to the captain , who told him `` to make it so , '' and Eight Bells was struck on the ship 's bell forwards , we would adjourn to the gunroom below . There we all worked out the reckoning , showing our respective calculations or `` fudgings '' as the case might be , to Mr Quadrant ; when if these `` passed muster , '' we entered the result in our log-books , along with other observations and facts connected with the daily routine of the ship and her progress towards her destination . To ascertain this , in addition to taking the sun at noon and noting the attitude of certain stars at night , the log was hove every hour ; and each of us learnt in turn to fix the pin in the `` dead man , '' as the log-ship is styled -- the triangular piece of wood , with a long line attached , by which the speed of the ship is ascertained . The first piece of this cord is termed the `` stray line , '' and is generally of the same length as the ship , so as to allow for the eddy and wash of the wake astern ; and , at the end of this stray line , a piece of bunting is inserted in the coil , from which a length of forty-seven feet three inches is measured off and a disc of leather put on the line to mark the termination of the first knot , or nautical mile .