midnight
By good fortune the approach of night has brought about a shifting of the wind , which has veered around to the west-north-west , making it possible for them to `` scud , '' without nearer approach to the dreaded fire-like line . In their cockleshell of a boat , they know that to run before the wind is their safest plan , and so they speed on south-eastward . An ocean current setting from the north-west also helps them in this course . Thus doubly driven , they make rapid progress , and before midnight the Milky Way is behind them and out of sight . But , though they breathe more freely , they are by no means out of danger -- alone in a frail skiff on the still turbulent ocean , and groping in thick darkness , with neither moon nor star to guide them . They have no compass , that having been forgotten in their scramble out of the sinking ship . But even if they had one it would be of little assistance to them at present , as , for the time being , they have enough to do in keeping the boat baled out and above water .