noon
Steward , '' he added , calling out to that worthy , who was just sauntering by into the cabin from the cook 's galley with a covered dish in his hands , `` lay a plate and knife and fork for Mr Leigh ; and bear in mind that he dines with me every day when his duties allow ! '' `` Aye , aye , sir , '' replied Owen Williams , proceeding on into his pantry with his dish , and I followed the skipper into the cabin shortly afterwards . This was undoubtedly a blow to the mate , as I thought , sniggering over the little episode at the time ; but , Mr Macdougall did not forget the fact of my having been the occasion of his getting a `` dressing down '' from the skipper , and he debited it carefully in his account against me , determining to pay me out for it on the first convenient opportunity -- a resolution that was carried out quite soon enough for me , as you will presently learn ! At noon on our second day out , running right before the north-east by east wind all the while and making but little southing , with our royals and studding-sails set , and everything that could draw -- the _ Esmeralda _ averaging nearly ten knots an hour every time we hove the log from the time of our clearing the Bristol Channel -- we had reached the meridian of 12 degrees 15 minutes west ; for Captain Billings wisely took advantage of such a favourable breeze , as I 've remarked before , to get well to windward of the French coast , knowing well that we might shortly meet with westerly winds of a variable nature that would probably put us quite as far to the eastward as we should want -- in the event of our making too much westing . However , having now gained such a good offing , we hauled our wind , and steered a west-sou ' - west course , as previously mentioned , towards Madeira . Up to this time we had not started a brace , or loosed a sheet , the wind being fair from aft while we were steering to the west , and now well abeam , on our bearing up to the southward on the port tack ; but , we had hardly made a couple of days ' sail in our new direction , running down to the parallel of 45 degrees north , which we crossed in 15 degrees west , before the wind began to come in light puffs . Shortly afterwards , it shifted round to the westward , backing occasionally to the east and south-east and causing us plenty of work in the way of tacking , first to starboard , and then to port again -- the skipper striving all the while to keep all the westing he had made , and preserve a diagonal course for the Line ; although the set of the Gulf Stream , in towards the coast of Portugal , gave us a lot of leeway to add to our dead reckoning .