THE CAPTAIN HAD TURNED in, and left orders to be shaken at seven o’clock: at five past he appeared on the bridge with a sextant and took some sights on the North Star. It was the only visible object and while observations of it alone couldn’t give them a fix, it would give an accurate latitude which would be a lot better than nothing. He took three or four sights, shouting down the sextant readings to the man he’d stationed down below to record the times of the sights by the deck-watch. When MacGregor was satisfied, he said, ‘Down you go, lookouts.’ The two men jumped for the hatch, and the Captain handed the sextant to Soames. ‘You go down, too, Sub. You can start working out those sights.’ ‘Aye, Sir.’ Holding the sextant carefully against his chest so as to be sure of not giving it a kno
