five o'clock in the morning
-LSB- Illustration : `` IT HAD BEEN A STORMY NIGHT . '' Page 51 . -RSB- It had been a stormy night , though the gale had not been so severe as either of the two the Maud had before encountered on the Mediterranean . It did not come on to blow hard till about eight bells in the afternoon ; and at five o'clock in the morning Captain Scott estimated that the little steamer ought to be off Cape Arnauti ; but all the lights of the island were on the south side . He kept her well off shore , where there were neither rocks nor shoals . There was nothing less than twenty fathoms of water a couple of miles from the shore . The gale had come from the south ; and the course of the Maud was only a couple of points from taking it directly aft , so that she was running too nearly before it for the comfort of those on board of her .