“At the southern solstice, on the 21st of December, the right ascension of the sun was eighteen hours; from that date to the present, three days have elapsed.”
“Yes—quite right.”
“That will make the right ascension of the sun to-day, eighteen hours, twelve minutes; but how can we subtract that from twelve hours, nineteen minutes?”
“A very correct question; you must increase the right ascension of the pointers, in this and similar cases, by twenty-four hours, making it thirty-six hours, nineteen minutes, from which subtracting the right ascension for to-day, will give eighteen hours, twelve minutes, the time of the upper culmination of the Cross, counting from yesterday at noon, as you added twenty-four hours to the right ascension of the pointers; consequently the Cross was upright at twelve minutes past six o’clock this morning, and nearly twelve hours afterwards, it was at its lower culmination, when you saw our fair navigator correct the variation of the compass by it.”
In this way the Southern Cross became an object of great admiration to the ladies, and they were soon able to estimate the time from it in any position.
The passengers in general made themselves agreeable to each other, and therefore many of our discomforts were made light of. This was not the case in other vessels belonging to the W.S.L. Line, and hence the disagreeable scenes which took place on board of them.
The ladies formed themselves into singing classes, under the direction of one of the reverend gentlemen passengers. Some of the gentlemen gave us their experience as travellers. One medical man gave us a lecture on the eye, and other subjects. Another young friend favoured us with an account of his ascent of the Nile, as far as Kartun. In this manner the day was got through, while in the evening, when tired of dancing, we gathered round the Captain on the poop, and there spent a pleasant hour or two in listening to some tale from him, or a song from the ladies.
The “Bill of Fare,” in consequence of the destruction of our poultry from sheer neglect, became beautifully less; and, indeed, after the first fortnight, no dish left the table with anything on it—a pretty clear proof that the table was not well supplied. About the same time puddings were discontinued, in consequence of the head steward having thrown a dish containing an uncooked pudding at the baker’s head. This placed the baker on the doctor’s list, and stopped fresh bread for the cabin. All these trials were very severe on the children, of whom there were an unusual number on board. Still we all had some delicacies for the voyage, and these were cheerfully divided among the little ones.
At last the drinking water got very bad, the pint allowed to us being really as thick as the coffee, and looking very much like a dose of rhubarb, from the immense quantity of iron rust which it contained. It became so bad that it was impossible to drink without filtering it through blotting paper, an interesting occupation, which engaged the gentlemen’s attention for some hours per diem. Here was another instance of neglect, the water-tanks having been filled without being cleaned. The officers of the ship said that they had never heard of white-washing the tanks inside with lime, to keep the water pure, and that the rust was always left in the tanks to purify their contents. I thought, after this, that a man might learn something new every day.
Our usual amusements began to tire us, and the increasing discomforts made us all long for the Cape of Good Hope, for we were becoming very discontented with the vessel, and began to give our feelings expression; when one day, while at lunch, where every one looked as if a little change of scene would do him good, there was a sudden cry of “Fire!—the ship’s on fire!”