one o'clock
The hearing was adjourned , and Paul returned to his room . The pilot of the ship was discharged at eight o'clock in the evening , and the two vessels stood on their course to the northward , with a fresh breeze from the south-west . They kept just outside of the continuous chains of shoals on the coast , but for nearly the whole time within sight of the numerous lighthouses which mark the various entrances of the Scheldt and the Maas . The masters on duty were kept very busy in consulting the charts and the sailing directions ; but at one o'clock the squadron was off the Brielle Gat , which is the deepest entrance to the river . There are two principal passages by which vessels may reach Rotterdam from the sea . At the mouth of the Maas , or of the river which includes the Rhine , Waal , and Maas , there is a large island called the Voorne . At the north of it is the Brielle Gat , which is the most direct sea passage to the city ; but the bar at its mouth has only seven and a half feet of water at low tide .