seven o'clock
`` Are we quite ready to go to sea , Mr Hoskins ? '' `` Absolutely , sir , at a moment 's notice , '' answered Hoskins . `` Very well , then , we will weigh as soon as the land-breeze springs up , '' said the skipper . And weigh we did , a little after seven o'clock that evening , securing a good offing , and clearing the shoals of Saint Ann by daybreak the next morning . We knew that it was customary for the slavers coming out of the Gulf of Guinea to endeavour to sight Cape Palmas , in order that they might obtain a good `` departure '' for the run across the Atlantic , also because they might usually reckon upon picking up the Trades somewhere in that neighbourhood . The skipper therefore carefully laid down upon his chart the supposititious course of the _ Virginia _ from the Gaboon to Cape Palmas , and thence onward to the Caribbean Sea ; and then shaped a course to enable us to fall in with her on the latter , at a spot about one hundred miles to the westward of Palmas . Having reached this spot , we shortened sail to our three topsails , spanker , and jib , and slowly worked to windward along that course , tacking every two hours until we had worked up to within sight of the cape , and then bearing up and running off to leeward for a distance of one hundred miles again , keeping a hand aloft on the main-royal yard as look-out from dawn to dark .