about midday
`` Poor child of danger , nursling of the storm , Sad are the woes that wreck thy manly form ! Rocks , waves , and winds the shatter 'd bark delay ; Thy heart is sad , thy home is far away . '' Campbell . It was about midday , when the two Sea Lions opened their canvass , at the same moment , and prepared to quit Sealer 's Land . All hands were on board , every article was shipped for which there was room , and nothing remained that denoted the former presence of man on that dreary island , but the deserted house , and three or four piles of cord-wood , that had grown on Shelter Island and Martha 's Vineyard , and which was now abandoned on the rocks of the antarctic circle . As the topsails were sheeted home , and the heavy fore-and-aft mainsails were hoisted , the songs of the men sounded cheerful and animating . ` Home ' was in every tone , each movement , all the orders .