three o’clock in the morning
The Nautilus 's general heading was southeast , and it stayed at a depth between 100 and 150 meters . However , from lord-knows-what whim , one day it did a diagonal dive by means of its slanting fins , reaching strata located 2,000 meters underwater . The thermometer indicated a temperature of 4.25 degrees centigrade , which at this depth seemed to be a temperature common to all latitudes . On November 26 , at three o'clock in the morning , the Nautilus cleared the Tropic of Cancer at longitude 172 degrees . On the 27th it passed in sight of the Hawaiian Islands , where the famous Captain Cook met his death on February 14 , 1779 . By then we had fared 4,860 leagues from our starting point . When I arrived on the platform that morning , I saw the Island of Hawaii two miles to leeward , the largest of the seven islands making up this group .