About noon
This answered its purpose perfectly , in so far as that it enabled us to keep the raft dead before the wind ; but when I tried the experiment of edging a couple of points or so to the southward of the direction in which the wind blew , with the view of reaching the Saint Domingo shore as quickly as possible , I found that the speed of the raft lessened sensibly , and that she began to drive slightly sideways through the water -- she would not , in short , travel in any direction except dead before the wind , and we were therefore compelled to rest content with that , and to devote all our energies to the most careful steering , so as to run straight to leeward and so get the greatest possible speed out of her . We steered in spells of two hours each , the rest seeking shelter from the sun 's rays in the shadow of the sail , the seamen trying to pass away the time as much as possible in sleep . As the morning wore on , the heat became very great and our thirst grew with it , but we managed to stave off its worst pangs by pouring sea-water plentifully over each other , as we sat in our clothes . About noon we thought of dinner , but , hungry as we by that time were , we scarcely fancied our fare , which was one of the dead fowls , to be eaten raw of course , since we had no means of cooking it . Finding that the rest were equally as squeamish as myself in this respect , I suggested and it was agreed that the fowls should remain untouched until we felt hungry enough to eat the uncooked flesh with a relish . Toward sun-down we had a most unwelcome addition to our company , in the shape of three sharks , which suddenly made their appearance close under the stern of the raft , maintaining their position , at about three yards distance , with a perseverance which was worthy of a better cause . The size of their dorsal fins , which were carried well out of the water , assured us that our followers were sharks of the largest size , and enabled us to form a pretty fair idea of what would be our fate should any of us be unfortunate enough to fall or be washed off the raft .