about ten o'clock
At this time it was about two bells in the first dog-watch , and they could therefore reckon on some ten hours of complete darkness -- sufficient , as the captain believed and hoped , to allow them to overtake the other two ships of the squadron . They continued to crack on ; and , as the skipper had enjoined the maintenance of strict silence , the ship seemed to those on board to resemble some dim phantom vessel , leaping ghost-like from wave to wave before the strengthening wind . No sound whatever was to be heard on board save the `` swish '' of the water alongside , the low roar of the bow-wave as she plunged through it and turned it aside from her bows , the weird crying of the wind through her maze of rigging aloft , and the occasional `` cheep '' of parral or block-sheave to the ` scend of the ship . At about ten o'clock , much to the captain 's satisfaction , the lights at the stern of the _ Tiger _ could be much more distinctly seen ; and he judged that she could at that time be only some four miles distant , showing that in the past three hours they had gained some three miles on her , which was good sailing . They were also , at this time , a good mile to the westward of the starboard quarter of the _ Tiger _ , and , if anything , edging a trifle more to starboard of her as they went along . The reason for this was that the captain did not wish to pass the _ Tiger _ at a less distance than a mile ; because , although it certainly was a very dark night , on even the blackest of nights , if the weather be clear , there is always a certain `` loom '' or faint image of a ship thrown against the sky ; and this loom would be visible to sharp eyes unless the _ Elizabeth _ kept some distance away from her consort . Little by little they crept up , overtaking the _ Tiger _ ; and bit by bit her triangle of lights at the stern was becoming merged into one ; then the one light became gradually eclipsed , until at length they could not see it at all , and by one o'clock in the morning they knew that they must be running parallel with the _ Tiger _ and at a distance of about a mile and a half on her starboard beam .