midnight
He goes and hunts for his oil , so as to be sure of its freshness and genuineness , even as the traveller on the prairie hunts up his own supper of game . Stowing Down and Clearing Up Already has it been related how the great leviathan is afar off descried from the mast-head ; how he is chased over the watery moors , and slaughtered in the valleys of the deep ; how he is then towed alongside and beheaded ; and how -LRB- on the principle which entitled the headsman of old to the garments in which the beheaded was killed -RRB- his great padded surtout becomes the property of his executioner ; how , in due time , he is condemned to the pots , and , like Shadrach , Meshach , and Abednego , his spermaceti , oil , and bone pass unscathed through the fire ; -- but now it remains to conclude the last chapter of this part of the description by rehearsing -- singing , if I may -- the romantic proceeding of decanting off his oil into the casks and striking them down into the hold , where once again leviathan returns to his native profundities , sliding along beneath the surface : is before ; but , alas ! never more to rise and blow . While still warm , the oil , like hot punch , is received into the six-barrel casks ; and while , perhaps , the ship is pitching and rolling this way and that in the midnight sea , the enormous casks are slewed round and headed over , end for end , and sometimes perilously scoot across the slippery deck , like so many land slides , till at last man-handled and stayed in their course ; and all round the hoops , rap , rap , go as many hammers as can play upon them , for now , ex officio , every sailor is a cooper . At length , when the last pint is casked , and all is cool , then the great hatchways are unsealed , the bowels of the ship are thrown open , and down go the casks to their final rest in the sea . This done , the hatches are replaced , and hermetically closed , like a closet walled up . In the sperm fishery , this is perhaps one of the most remarkable incidents in all the business of whaling .