noon
By half-past nine the mast was hoisted , and held firmly in its place by some shrouds attached securely to the sides of the raft ; then the sail was run up and trimmed to the wind , and the raft began to make a perceptible progress under the brisk breeze . As soon as we had once started , the carpenter set to work to contrive some sort of a rudder , that would enable us to maintain our desired direction . Curtis and Falsten assisted him with some serviceable suggestions , and in a couple of hours ' time he had made and fixed to the back of the raft a kind of paddle , very similar to those used by the Malays . At noon , after the necessary preliminary observations , Curtis took the altitude of the sun . The result gave lat . 15 deg . 7 ' N. by long .