noon
The captain sent for Ralph , and after a few questions directed him to attend to the duty . He performed it with his usual attention and intelligence . It kept him also on the quarter-deck and under the eyes of the officers . As is customary , the midshipmen assembled under the master each day at noon and at other periods with their sextants or quadrants to take observations . Some of the younger ones Ralph remarked handled their instruments rather clumsily , and evidently did not understand their use . `` I say , Dickenson , for the life of me I can not manage to shoot the old sun with this thing , it only puts my eyes out ; and yesterday again my day 's work was all wrong somehow or other , '' said Mr Paul Chandos , a youngster who had just come to sea , to another midshipman who had also not been many months in the Navy . `` I 'm sure I ca n't help you , '' answered Dickenson , a gawky lad , with a hopeless glance at his quadrant .