about four in the afternoon
was the captain 's nodded farewell to the hulk of the _ Currency Lass _ , which presently shrank and faded in the sea . A little after a calm succeeded , with much rain ; and the first meal was eaten , and the watch below lay down to their uneasy slumber on the bilge under a roaring shower-bath . The twenty-ninth dawned overhead from out of ragged clouds ; there is no moment when a boat at sea appears so trenchantly black and so conspicuously little ; and the crew looked about them at the sky and water with a thrill of loneliness and fear . With sunrise the Trade set in , lusty and true to the point ; sail was made ; the boat flew ; and by about four in the afternoon , they were well up with the closed part of the reef , and the captain standing on the thwart , and holding by the mast , was studying the island through the binoculars . `` Well , and where 's your station ? '' cried Mac . `` I do n't someway pick it up , '' replied the captain .