noon
She was fitted with a keel nine inches deep amidships , tapering off to four inches deep at each end ; was rigged as a schooner , with standing fore and main lug and a small jib , and , with her ordinary crew on board and sitting to windward , required no ballast even in a fresh breeze . Small wonder , therefore , was it that , having such a boat under us , we had run the rest of the fleet out of sight by midday , the wind still blowing strong , although it was moderating rapidly . The first lieutenant was , like the captain , fond of inventing and designing things , but his speciality took the form of logs for determining the speed of craft through the water ; and in the course of his experiments he had provided each of the frigate 's boats with an ingenious spring arrangement which , attached to an ordinary fishing-line with a lead weight secured to its outer end , which was continuously towed astern , registered the speed of the boat with a very near approach to perfect accuracy . The day passed uneventfully away , the wind moderating steadily all the time , and the sun breaking through considerably before noon , enabling me to secure a meridian altitude wherefrom to compute my latitude . The sea , too , was going down , and when the sun set that night the sky wore a very promising fine-weather aspect . As the great golden orb vanished below the horizon we rounded the boat to , lowered our sails , and moored her to a sea anchor made of the oars lashed together in a bundle with the painter bent on to them . And later on , when it fell dark , we lighted a lantern and hoisted it to our fore-masthead , as a beacon for which the other boats might steer .