9 o'clock to 11:30
But , luckily , we were blessed with favouring winds and made a good passage , picking up the North-East Trades shortly after we said `` good-bye '' to Funchal , with its pretty white villas nestling on the hillside amid a background of greenery ; and then , meeting with strong westerly breezes instead of calms , on getting further south into the Tropics , we crossed the Line on Christmas Day , when all the good people at home , I thought at the time , would be shivering with cold and saying , as they snuggled up to the fire , gazing perhaps on a snow-covered landscape without , `` What seasonable weather we are having ! '' while we were sweltering in the heat under a copper sky , with the thermometer up to 98 degrees in the shade of the awnings ! From the Equator , we had a splendid run to the Cape , taking altogether exactly sixty-five days clear for our passage from England . During this interval I and my brother cadets had to attend `` school '' every morning from half-past 9 o'clock to 11:30 in the captain 's outer cabin under the poop , where the chaplain , who also filled the post of naval instructor , officiated as schoolmaster-in-chief , teaching us mathematics and the theory of navigation , as well as seeing that we kept up our logs , which Captain Farmer himself inspected once a week , to make certain that the chaplain , on his part , attended to his duty . We got on very well with the Reverend Mr Smythe , who had all his longshore starchiness knocked out of him by his long bout of sea-sickness , the poor man having been confined to his bunk and completely prostrate with the fell malady from the hour that we weighed anchor at Plymouth until we `` brought up '' at Madeira . I should not , perhaps , have made use of this term , as it savours of tautology , the unfortunate chaplain having been industriously occupied in doing little else save `` bringing up '' all the time ; especially when we were pitching and rolling in the Bay of Biscay ! Every day , too , at a quarter of an hour before noon , we had to muster on the poop , where , under the tutelage of the master , Mr Quadrant , we watched for the dip of the sun ; and , as soon as the master reported that it was twelve o'clock to the captain , who told him `` to make it so , '' and Eight Bells was struck on the ship 's bell forwards , we would adjourn to the gunroom below .