midnight
60 degrees 28 minutes , and longitude 59 degrees 20 minutes West -- bearings which showed that they would be , before many days had past , at the Great Barrier itself . Excitement ran high among the boys at the receipt of this news , and Frank and Harry , who had fitted up a kind of work-room in the warmed hold , worked eagerly at their auto-sledge , which was expected to be of much use in transporting heavy loads to and from the ship to the winter quarters . Before the two vessels reached the Barrier , however , they were destined to encounter a spell of bad weather . One evening Ben Stubbs announced to the boys , who had been admiring a sunset of a beauty seldom seen in northern climes , that they were in for a hard blow , and before midnight his prediction was realized . Frank awoke in his bunk , to find himself alternately standing , as it seemed , on his head and his feet . The Southern Cross was evidently laboring heavily and every plank and bolt in her was complaining . Now and again a heavy sea would hit the rudder with a force that threatened to tear it from its pintles , solidly though it was contrived .