seven o'clock
The examination was satisfactory , on all points but one ; that of the holding-ground ; and we returned to the vessel , having taken good care to trust ourselves in neither the wind nor the current . An anchor-watch was set , with a mate on deck , four hours and four hours , and all hands turned in . I had the morning watch . What occurred from seven o'clock -LRB- the captain keeping the dog-watches himself , -RRB- until a few minutes before four , I can not tell in detail , though I understood generally , that the wind continued to blow in the same quarter , though it gradually diminished in violence , getting down to something like a mere gale , by midnight . The ship rode more easily ; but , when the flood came in , there was no longer an eddy , the current sucking round each side of the island in a very unusual manner . About ten minutes before the hour when it was my regular watch on deck , all hands were called ; I ran on deck , and found the ship had struck adrift , the cable having parted . Marble had got the vessel 's head up to the wind , under bare poles as before , and we soon began to heave in the cable .