noon
He affirmed it was the Crisis , heading the same way we were ourselves , and which had only got to windward of us , by keeping a better luff . We had calculated too much on the schooner 's weatherly qualities , and had allowed her to fall off more than was necessary , in the night-watches . The Pretty Poll was now jammed up on a wind , in the hope of closing with the chase in the course of the night . But the wind had been growing lighter and lighter for some hours , and by noon , though we had neared the chase so much as to be able to see her from deck , there was every prospect of its falling calm ; after which , in the trades , it would be surprising if we did not get a blow . To make the most of our time , Marble determined to tack , when we had just got the chase a point off our weather-bow . An hour after tacking , an object was seen adrift on the ocean , and keeping away a little to close with it , it was ascertained to be a whale-boat , adrift . The boat was American built , had a breaker of water , the oars , and all the usual fittings in it ; and the painter being loose , it had probably been lost , when towing in the night , in consequence of having been fastened by _ three _ half-hitches .