midnight
Though I can not repress a shudder when I think of that old ship 's end , it is impossible for me so much as to imagine , that our deserting her could have been in any way instrumental in her loss . Nevertheless , I would to heaven the Arcturion still floated ; that it was given me once more to tread her familiar decks . They Push Off , Velis Et Remis And now to tell how , tempted by devil or good angel , and a thousand miles from land , we embarked upon this western voyage . It was midnight , mark you , when our watch began ; and my turn at the helm now coming on was of course to be avoided . On some plausible pretense , I induced our solitary watchmate to assume it ; thus leaving myself untrammeled , and at the same time satisfactorily disposing of him . For being a rather fat fellow , an enormous consumer of `` duff , '' and with good reason supposed to be the son of a farmer , I made no doubt , he would pursue his old course and fall to nodding over the wheel . As for the leader of the watch -- our harpooner -- he fell heir to the nest of old jackets , under the lee of the mizzen-mast , left nice and warm by his predecessor .