about a quarter past three o'clock in the morning
The _ Saturn _ was a brand-new ship , this being her maiden voyage . She was a twin-screw , of 9800 tons register , 100 A1 at Lloyd 's , steaming 14 knots ; and she had accommodation for 432 passengers , of whom 84 were first class , 128 second class , and 220 steerage ; and every berth was occupied , the steerage crowd consisting mostly of miners attracted to Australia by the rumour of a newly discovered goldfield of fabulous richness . The crew of the ship numbered , all told , 103 ; therefore , when the catastrophe occurred , the _ Saturn _ was responsible for the lives of 535 people , of whom about 120 were women and children . I was officer of the watch , and was therefore on the bridge when it happened , the time being shortly after six bells in the middle watch , or say about a quarter past three o'clock in the morning . The weather was fine , with so moderate a westerly wind blowing that the speed of the ship just balanced it , the smoke and sparks from the funnel rising straight up into the air when the firemen shovelled coal into the furnaces ; and apart from the long westerly swell there was very little sea running . The motion of the ship was therefore very easy , just a slow roll of four or five degrees to port and starboard , and an equally slow , gentle rise and fall of the ship over the swell that followed us . The moon was only four days old , consequently she had set hours earlier , but the sky was cloudless , the air was clear , and the stars , shining brilliantly , afforded light enough to reveal a ship at a distance of quite three miles ; it would be difficult , therefore , to imagine conditions of more apparently perfect safety than those at the moment prevailing aboard the _ Saturn _ .