four o'clock
The Survivors of the Chancellor by Jules Verne CHARLESTON , September 27 , 1898 . -- It is high tide , and three o'clock in the afternoon when we leave the Battery quay ; the ebb carries us off shore , and as Captain Huntly has hoisted both main and top sails , the northerly breeze drives the Chancellor briskly across the bay . Fort Sumter ere long is doubled , the sweeping batteries of the mainland on our left are soon passed , and by four o'clock the rapid current of the ebbing tide has carried us through the harbor mouth . But as yet we have not reached the open sea we have still to thread our way through the narrow channels which the surge has hollowed out amongst the sand-banks . The captain takes a southwest course , rounding the lighthouse at the corner of the fort ; the sails are closely trimmed ; the last sandy point is safely coasted , and at length , at seven o'clock in the evening , we are out free upon the wide Atlantic . The Chancellor is a fine square-rigged three-master , of 900 tons burden , and belongs to the wealthy Liverpool firm of Laird Brothers .