noon
During the forenoon watch , the deck was in charge of Mr Adams , the second mate -- a plain , steady-going , matter-of-fact sort of man , with none of that buoyant spirit and keen sense of humour which characterised hid senior shipmate McCarthy , although he was a thorough sailor to the backbone , and believed the human race to be divided into two classes , those who were seamen and those who were n't . The wind now took a more favourable turn , settling itself in the south-east quarter as if it meant to remain there , thus enabling the ship to steer a better course ; and , meanwhile , the sky clearing up a bit , the threatening clouds drifted to leeward and the sun shone out again just as it did when the captain first came on deck in the early morning . Taking advantage of the change , the reefs were shaken out of the topsails , the courses let fall again , the jib and flying-jib hoisted , and the topgallants set ; and soon , with her head steering south-west and a half south , the _ Nancy Bell _ was bounding over the waves under all plain sail , as if anxious to make up for the time she had lost in tacking about against the head-wind that had barred her southward progress ever since she took her departure from the Lizard Point on the previous day when she hauled out from the Channel . The breeze was freshening , and there was a nasty sort of chopping sea , when the captain came on the poop at noon to take the sun , in order to ascertain his longitude -- an operation which would have been much more difficult in the hazy weather that had prevailed some few hours previous , with the zenith every now and then overcast by the fleecy storm wrack and flying scud that came drifting across the sky as the wind veered ; but the ship was making good running , and everything bade fair for her soon crossing the boisterous Bay of Biscay , on whose troubled waters she had now entered . `` She 's slipping along ! '' said Captain Dinks to Adams , rubbing his hands together gleefully , as he put down his sextant on the top of the saloon skylight for a moment and gave a glance aloft and then over the side to windward . `` Yes , sir , '' replied the second mate .