about one o'clock in the morning
Then I would spring upon a thwart and search the horizon eagerly and feverishly for the sight of a sail , following this up with a renewed attempt to catch a fish or two . I shall never forget the courage and fortitude exhibited by Miss Onslow during this trying period ; she never uttered a single word of complaint or impatience , although it was impossible for her to conceal the fact that she suffered acutely ; and whenever she found me unusually silent and , as she thought , giving way to dejection , she always had ready a word or two of encouragement . Thus matters wearily and painfully progressed with us until six days and seven nights had dragged their slow length away , and a full week had elapsed since the sinking of the _ City of Cawnpore _ . We were still working our way to the southward , against an amount of wind and sea that were quite as much as the boat could look at ; and Miss Onslow was at my feet , wrapped up in the sail , and moaning in her troubled sleep ; the hour being about one o'clock in the morning . I was of course _ always _ on the lookout for a ship , night and day , but the time had now arrived when I began to see craft that had no existence save in my disordered imagination ; I was therefore neither surprised nor elated when I suddenly became aware of a vague , indefinite shadow of deeper darkness , faintly and doubtfully showing against the horizon broad on my weather bow ; I simply regarded it as another phantom , and thought no more about it . Yet I kept my gaze fixed upon it , nevertheless -- since . I had nothing better to occupy my attention ; and presently a peculiarity of this vision -- not shared by the others I had seen -- forced itself upon my notice , inasmuch as that , while the other phantom ships that I had seen had exhibited a propensity to rush over the surface of the ocean at lightning speed , and to appear in half a dozen quarters or more in as many seconds , this one obstinately persisted in maintaining the precise position in which I had at first discovered her .