noon
And as a still farther precaution against losing myself I hunted up a hatchet to take along with me to blaze my way . All of which matters being attended to , I made a rope fast to the rail -- knotting it at intervals , so that I could climb it again easily -- and so slipped down the steamer 's side . My business was only with the wrecks lying along the extreme outer edge of the pack -- from which alone it would be possible for me to launch a boat in the event of my finding one -- but in order to get from one to the other of them I had to make so many long detours that my progress was very slow . Indeed , by the time that noon came , and I stopped to eat my dinner -- which I had brought along with me , that I need not have to hunt for it -- I had made less than half a mile in a straight line . And in none of the vessels that I had crossed -- except on one lying so far in the pack as to be of no use to me -- had I found a single boat that would swim . Nor had I any better luck when I went on with my search again in the afternoon . As it had been in the case of the _ Hurst Castle _ so it had been , I suppose , in the case of all the wrecks which I examined that day : either their boats had been staved-in or washed overboard by tempest , or else had served to carry away their crews .