about midnight
The third was a lad , Cutler , a runaway apprentice , who had been working ashore since his ship had sailed . It was said that he had been ` conducting ' a tramcar to his own immediate profit and was anxious . We were still six hands short , but , on the morning after a Yankee clipper came in from New York , we towed out -- with three prostrate figures lying huddled among the raffle in the fo ` cas ` le . * * * * * We raised the anchor about midnight and dawn found us creeping through the Golden Gate in the wake of a panting tug . There was nothing to see , for the morning mist was over the Straits , and we had no parting view of the harbour . The siren on Benita Point roared a raucous warning as we felt our way past the Head ; and that , for us , was the last of the land . When we reached the schooner and discharged our Pilot , it was still a ` clock calm , ' and there was nothing for it but to tow for an offing , while we put the canvas on her in readiness for a breeze .