three o'clock
It was not necessary that the two parts of these compound vessels should always be the same . The upper hulls belonging to one of the transatlantic lines were generally so constructed that they could be adjusted to any one of their lower or motive-power hulls . Each hull had a name of its own , and so the combination name of the entire vessel was frequently changed . It was not three o'clock when the Euterpe-Thalia passed through the Narrows and moved slowly towards her pier on the Long Island side of the city . The quarantine officers , who had accompanied the vessel on her voyage , had dropped their report in the official tug which had met the vessel on her entrance into the harbor , and as the old custom-house annoyances had long since been abolished , most of the passengers were prepared for a speedy landing . One of these passengers -- a man about thirty-five -- stood looking out over the stern of the vessel instead of gazing , as were most of his companions , towards the city which they were approaching . He looked out over the harbor , under the great bridge gently spanning the distance between the western end of Long Island and the New Jersey shore -- its central pier resting where once lay the old Battery -- and so he gazed over the river , and over the houses stretching far to the west , as if his eyes could catch some signs of the country far beyond .