five o'clock
Our own skipper , I must mention , was just recovering from wild , weird visions of impossible , imaginary animals , superinduced by Hollands gin , and I wanted to put him ashore at Ponapé for a week or so . After dinner the American captain put a barrel of potatoes into our boat , and I bade him good-bye for the time . The breeze was now freshening , and , as he decided to get into Jakoits before dark , the barque made sail , and was soon a good distance ahead of our vessel . Between four and five o'clock we saw the foremost whaler -- the ship -- brace up sharp , and almost immediately the other three followed suit . We soon discovered the cause -- whales had been sighted , coming down from windward . The ` pod ' or school was nearest to us , and we could see them quite plainly from the deck . Every now and then one of them would ` breach ' and send up a white mass of foam , and by their course I saw that they would pass between us and the barque -- the ship nearest to us .