Mr Thudicumb again looked at his watch. “There he is, sir,” he exclaimed at length.
He and the captain stopped in their walk; their sextants were quickly at their eyes; and there they stood, their feet planted firmly on the heaving deck, in an attitude long practice alone could have enabled them to maintain. A clear space was seen in the sky, increasing rapidly, and yet not altogether blue, but the vapour which drove across it was not sufficiently thick to prevent the sun’s rays descending upon the sea.
“She has dipped, sir,” said the first officer.
“She has,” observed the captain.
The sun’s elevation was read off on the index, and the instruments were returned to their cases. The calculation was very quickly worked out on a scrap of card.
“Make it noon, Mr Thudicumb,” said the captain, as, returning the case to the young cabin-boy, he directed him to take it below. While the captain and his first officer were making their observation, a group of midshipmen had collected on the deck with their quadrants in their hands, doing their best to shoot the sun, but their less experienced eyes could make but little of it in that heavy sea; and when they came to read off their observations, they were somewhat surprised at the wonderful difference which existed among them. Stopping to listen to a few remarks made to them by the captain, they hurried off the deck to deposit their quadrants in places of safety. The dog all the time stood with his feet firmly planted on the deck, watching the captain, as if he fully understood what was going on. Captain Davenport, as he turned, patted him on the head. “You are a wise dog, Merlin,” he observed; “but you cannot take an observation yet.” Merlin wagged his tail as if he had received a compliment, or, at all events, well pleased at the notice taken of him.
The captain was a tall man of spare figure, his white locks and weather-beaten countenance making him appear considerably older than his firm, yet light and active step, seemed to warrant. His eye, too, was still full of life and fire, and his voice clear and strong, evidence of which had been given when he issued his orders in the late gale, and when, by his promptitude and decision, he had saved the ship, seemingly on the point of destruction.
Scarcely had eight bells been struck, when the voice of the boatswain from the forecastle was heard shouting, “A vessel on the lee bow, sir! A dismasted ship! It can be nothing else!”
Captain Davenport went forward, followed by Merlin.
“Where away is she, Mr Tarbox?” he asked of the boatswain.