about four o'clock in the
afternoon
I demanded , resenting his facetious manner . ` I can , but it will scare him off , ' replied the Captain . So we turned all our batteries on the sea . The dynamo shot forth its bolts and along about four o'clock in the afternoon there was the whale drawn by magnetic influence to the side of _ The Lyre _ . He was a beauty , Ananias , '' Munchausen added with enthusiasm . `` You never saw such a whale . His back was as broad as the deck of an ocean steamer and in his length he exceeded the dimensions of _ The Lyre _ by sixty feet . ''