Eight o’clock
By then the frigate lay in latitude 31 degrees 15 ' north and longitude 136 degrees 42 ' east . The shores of Japan were less than 200 miles to our leeward . Night was coming on . Eight o'clock had just struck . Huge clouds covered the moon 's disk , then in its first quarter . The sea undulated placidly beneath the frigate 's stempost . Just then I was in the bow , leaning over the starboard rail .