about three o'clock in the afternoon
She behaved well ; and we hoped , believing that we were still some thirty miles or more from the coast , that she would not near the reefs till the gale had abated . An anxious look-out , however , was kept all day to leeward . My father did not tell my mother and Edith the danger we were in , but merely begged them to remain in the cabin . It was about three o'clock in the afternoon , when the first mate , who had been seated in the main-top looking out , came down on deck , and gave my father the alarming intelligence that he saw a line of breakers to leeward , extending north and south as far as the eye could reach . `` Could you discover no opening in them ? '' asked my father . `` I am not certain at this distance that there is none , though the line of surf appeared to me without a break for its whole length , '' was the answer .