a quarter past
eleven
I fancied -- because it had been that way aboard the _ Golden Hind _ -- that the captain 's room would be one of those opening off from the cabin , and so began my search for it in that quarter . But when I had made the round of all the state-rooms I was satisfied that they had been occupied only by passengers . The single timepiece that I found -- for the clock in the cabin had been smashed when the mizzen-mast came down -- was a fine gold watch lying in one of the berths partly under the pillow , where its owner must have left it in his hurry to get to the boats . It still was going , and I slipped it into my pocket -- feeling that a thing with even that much of life in it would be a comfort to me ; but the hour that it gave was a quarter past eleven -LRB- it having been set to the ship 's time the day before , I suppose -RRB- and therefore was of no use to me as a basis for sight-taking . Having exhausted the possibilities of the cabin I concluded that the captain 's quarters must have been forward , and so shifted my search to the forward deck-house ; and as I found a blue uniform coat and a suit of oil-skins in the first room that I entered I was sure that in a general way I was on the right track . But in none of these rooms did I find what I was looking for -- though I did find in one of them , and greatly to my satisfaction , a chest of carpenter 's tools and a big box of nails . The nails must have been there by pure accident , but the tools probably were the carpenter 's private kit ; and as in the course of my farther search I did not come across the ship 's carpenter-shop -- which no doubt was under water forward -- I felt that this chance supply of what I needed for my raft-building was a very lucky thing for me indeed .