noon
We lost no time , therefore , in committing our dead comrades to their last resting-place in the deep , and then proceeded to get the boats into the water , and stock them with provisions for our voyage . Now , with regard to this same voyage , I had thus far been much too busy to give the matter more than the most cursory consideration , but the time had now arrived when it became necessary for me to decide for what point we should steer when the moment arrived for us to take to the boats . Poor Gowland was , unfortunately , one of the five who had been killed by the brig 's murderous broadside of grape , and I was therefore deprived of the benefit of his advice and assistance in the choice of a port for which to steer ; but I was by this time a fairly expert navigator myself , quite capable of doing without assistance if necessary . I therefore spread out a chart on the top of the skylight , and , with the help of the log-book , pricked off the position of the schooner at noon that day , from which I discovered that Cape Coast Castle was our nearest port . But to reach it with the wind in the quarter from which it was then blowing it would be necessary to put the boats on a taut bowline , with the possibility that , even then , we might fall to leeward of our port , whereas it was a fair wind for Sierra Leone . I therefore arrived at the conclusion that , taking everything into consideration , it would be my wisest plan to make for the latter port , and I accordingly determined there and then the proper course to be steered upon leaving the schooner . The _ Dolores _ had by this time settled _ so _ deeply in the water that it was necessary to complete our preparations for leaving her without further delay .