noon
The projectors of the enterprise had a firm belief that there was a channel from Baffin 's Bay into an open polar sea , which would be navigable if its entrance were not blocked up by ice , and on this belief were based all their hopes of success . So the explorers pressed steadily onward , always with an anxious lookout above them for fear of striking the overhanging ice , always with an anxious lookout below for fear of dangers which might loom up from the bottom , always with an anxious lookout starboard for fear of running against the foundations of Greenland , always with an anxious lookout to port for fear of striking the groundwork of the unknown land to the west , and always keeping a lookout in every direction for whatever revelation these unknown waters might choose to make to them . Captain Jim Hubbell had no sympathy with the methods of navigation practised on board the Dipsey . So long as he could not go out on deck and take his noon observations , he did not believe it would be possible for him to know exactly where his vessel was ; but he accepted the situation , and objected to none of the methods of the scientific navigators . `` It 's a mighty simple way of sailin ' , '' he said to Sammy . `` As long as there 's water to sail in , you have just got to git on a line of longitude -- it does n't matter what line , so long as there 's water ahead of you -- and keep there ; and so long as you steer due north , always takin ' care not to switch off to the magnetic pole , of course you will keep there ; and as all lines of longitude come to the same point at last , and as that 's the point you are sailin ' for , of course , if you can keep on that line of longitude as long as it lasts , it follows that you are bound to git there . If you come to any place on this line of longitude where there 's not enough water to sail her , you have got to stop her ; and then , if you ca n't see any way of goin ' ahead on another line of longitude , you can put her about and go out of this on the same line of longitude that you came up into it on , and so you may expect to find a way clear .