about quarter past
eleven o'clock
`` Nothing extra , '' Jack admitted . `` But I guess I can at least make legible letters . '' All was in readiness long before need came . At about quarter past eleven o'clock that night the `` Pollard '' noiselessly slipped from her moorings . At that time none of the searchlights of the fleet at anchor happened to be turned toward the submarine boat . Ventilators were taken in , the manhole cover was closed , lights were extinguished , and , the next instant , the `` Pollard '' began to sink . Only one light burned aboard , and that came from a small lantern in the engine room , where Hal Hastings crouched over the electric motor , keeping strict track of the revolutions .