noon
In truth , my imagination was willing to accept it as the same bird that I had frightened away when in the boat , now returned to silently reproach me for my treatment of it . Nay , my lonely eye , my subdued and suffering heart might even have witnessed the good angel of my life in that solitary shape of ocean beauty , and have deemed that , though unseen , it had been with me throughout , and was now made visible to my gaze by the light of hope that had broken into the darkness of my adventure . Well , supposing it so , I should not have been the only man who ever scared his good angel away and found it faithful afterwards . I unlashed the tiller and got the schooner before the wind and steered until a little before noon , letting her drive dead before the sea , which carried her north-east . Then securing the helm amidships I ran for the quadrant , and whilst waiting for the sun to show himself I observed that the vessel held herself very steadily before the wind , which might have been owing to her high stern and the great swell of her sides and her round bottom ; but be the cause what it might , she ran as fairly with her helm amidships as if I had been at the tiller to check her , a most fortunate condition of my navigation , for it privileged me to get about other work , whilst , at the same time , every hour was conveying me nearer to the track of ships and further from the bitter regions of the south . I got an observation and made out that the vessel had driven about fifteen leagues during the night . She must do better than that , thought I ; and when I had eaten some dinner I took a chopper , and , going on to the forecastle , lay out upon the bowsprit , and after beating the spritsail-yard block clear of the ice , cut away the gaskets that confined the sail to the yard , heartily beating the canvas , that was like iron , till a clew of it fell .