twelve
o'clock
This puzzled him , so he decided to go and investigate for himself . He took up a speaking-tube and said to his Lieutenant , M'Carthy -- one of too many renegade Irishmen who in the terrible times that were to come joined their country 's enemies as Lynch and his traitors had done in the Boer War : `` I do n't quite make it out , M'Carthy . We 'll go down and get under -- it 's about time the fun began -- and I have n't heard a shot fired or seen an English ship except that submarine we smashed . My orders are for twelve o'clock , and I 'm going to obey them . '' There was one more device on board the _ Flying Fish _ which should be described in order that her wonderful manoeuvering under water may be understood . Just in front of the steering-wheel in the conning-tower was a square glass box measuring a foot in the side , and in the centre of this , attached to top and bottom by slender films of asbestos , was a needle ten inches long , so hung that it could turn and dip in any direction . The forward half of this needle was made of highly magnetised steel , and the other of aluminium which exactly counter-balanced it .