noon
`` I could probably help if I knew what the idea was . '' Rick explained briefly . He wanted to check the shipping sections for the dates when the _ Albatross _ had been seen at Creek House . He particularly wanted to know what ships had arrived at New York at noon or before on those dates . He was interested in ships arriving from southern ports in the Caribbean , or from southern Europe . That , he figured , would give them only the ships that might have been standing off Seaford in the early hours before dawn on the critical dates . He had a vague idea that he might find some sort of similarity in the ships that had been off Seaford on the critical dates .