two o'clock in the morning
She swept through a hail of ejected material , which was fortunately kept at bay by the centrifugal action of the suspensory screws . And she harmlessly passed over the crater while it was in full eruption . An hour afterwards the horizon hid from their view the two colossal torches which light the confines of the world during the long polar night . At two o'clock in the morning Balleny Island was sighted on the coast of Discovery Land , though it could not be recognized owing to its being bound to the mainland by a cement of ice . And the `` Albatross '' emerged from the polar circle on the hundred and seventy-fifth meridian . The hurricane had carried her over the icebergs and icefloes , against which she was in danger of being dashed a hundred times or more . She was not in the hands of the helmsman , but in the hand of God -- and God is a good pilot .