the sun at noon
On one important point the widow 's prayers for her son were heard , and Ben was kept out of the temptations and the influence of bad example to which poor sailor boys are so often exposed . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1 . A blue flag so called ; it gives notice that the ship is about to sail . Ben found the weather growing hotter and hotter as the ship approached the line , which Mr Martin told him was not really a line , but only a circle supposed to be drawn round the widest part of the globe , and where the sun at noon appears directly overhead . Still no one was much the worse for the heat ; and gradually , as the ship sailed farther south , the weather became cooler and cooler , till it was as cold as it is in the winter in England ; and Ben learned that the frigate was approaching the southern pole . She was then to sail round -- not the pole , but a vast headland called Cape Horn ; and on the other side , that is to say , to the west of it , to enter the wide Pacific Ocean . Ben had shown so much intelligence , and had made himself so generally useful , that Mr Charlton had placed him in a watch , that he might learn to do his duty by night as well as by day .