nine o'clock in the morning
So , if he should meet , on his course , some transatlantic steamer on the way toward America , he already thought of advising his passenger to embark on it . Unfortunately , he was detained in latitudes too high to cross a steamer running to Panama ; and , besides , at that period communication across the Pacific , between Australia and the New World , was not as frequent as it has since become . It then was necessary to leave everything to the grace of God , and it seemed as if nothing would trouble this monotonous passage , when the first incident occurred precisely on that day , February 2d , in the latitude and longitude indicated at the beginning of this history . Dick Sand and Jack , toward nine o'clock in the morning , in very clear weather , were installed on the booms of the mizzen-topmast . Thence they looked down on the whole ship and a portion of the ocean in a largo circumference . Behind , the perimeter of the horizon was broken to their eyes , only by the mainmast , carrying brigantine and fore-staff . That beacon hid from them a part of the sea and the sky .