twelve o'clock
Later on , as the gale slackened , we set our topsails close-reefed , and more ` fore-and-aft ' sail ; and , when the sun had got above our foreyard , the commodore ordered the topgallant-masts to be sent up , these having been housed when it came on to blow heavily . Our topgallants were consequently set above our close-reefed topsails , which some of the young seamen on board appeared to think a most extraordinary proceeding ; but one of the quarter-masters , who was an old hand , said he had often seen it done when sailing `` under old Fitzroy on the Pacific station , '' when their ship would be bowling along under this sail before a stiff nor ' - easter , in the run down from Vancouver to Callao , past the inhospitable Californian coast . At noon that day , the navigating officer , who took the sun on the poop , surrounded by a lot of the young midshipmen we had on board for instruction during the training cruise , like us boys on the lower deck each in our respective billet , gave out that we were in latitude 44 degrees 10 minutes north , and longitude 10 degrees 15 minutes west , thus showing that we were well to the westward of the ill-omened Cape Finisterre and now safely out of the Bay of Biscay ! The navigator also told our commanding officer , in the usual stereotyped nautical formula , that it was twelve o'clock . `` All right , '' replied the commodore . `` Make it so ! '' Accordingly , the sentry on the forecastle struck Eight Bells , and the men were piped down to dinner ; the boatswain 's mates sounding their shrill calls through the ship as the echo of the last stroke of the clapper on the side of the ship 's bell ceased to reverberate in the noisy air , which was filled with the creaking of the blocks aloft and the hum of the wind , the sea breaking against our counter alongside in a sullen fashion as if old Neptune were disappointed at letting us slip out of his clutches !