ten o'clock
Notwithstanding these advantages , however , she must in a dead calm necessarily suffer from the same disadvantages as other sailing vessels , and it might have been supposed that the Count d'Artigas would have preferred a steam-yacht with which he could have gone anywhere , at any time , in any weather . But apparently he was satisfied to stick to the old method , even when he made his long trips across the Atlantic . On this particular morning the wind was blowing gently from the west , which was very favorable to the _ Ebba _ , and would enable her to stand straight out of the Neuse , across Pamlico Sound , and through one of the inlets that led to the open sea . At ten o'clock the _ Ebba _ was still rocking lazily at anchor , her stem up stream and her cable tautened by the rapidly ebbing tide . The small buoy that on the previous evening had been moored near the schooner was no longer to be seen , and had doubtless been hoisted in . Suddenly a gun boomed out and a slight wreath of white smoke arose from the battery . It was answered by other reports from the guns on the chain of islands along the coast .