eight o'clock
After that terrible night the crew had lost their fear and worked with enthusiasm . Some hands were always at the pumps , when they could be worked , for besides the brine from the fish gathering below , Code feared the vessel had spewed some oakum and was taking a little water forward . Now , too , the horrible stench of riled bilge-water floated over all -- compared to which an aged egg is a bouquet of roses . At eight o'clock that morning they rounded Cape Sable at the tip of Nova Scotia , and laid a course a trifle west of north for the final beat home . There was a hundred miles to go , and Burns still held his three-mile lead . By herself and loaded only with ballast , the _ Nettie _ was a better sailor in a beating game , for she was older and heavier than the _ Charming Lass _ . But now she had but a thousand quintal of fish compared to the sixteen hundred of her rival .