midnight
Then he and the boys , who , although they had quarters aft , had been assigned to the port watch , went below and turned in . Jeremy , stumbling on deck at eight bells , pulled his seaman 's greatcoat up about his ears , for the breeze came cold . He worked his way forward along the high weather rail and took up his lookout station on the starboard bow . Overhead the midnight sky burned bright with stars that seemed to flicker like candle-flames in the wind . A half-grown moon rode down the west and threw a faint radiance across the heaving seas . It was blowing harder now . The wind boomed loud in the taut stays and the rising waves broke smashingly over the bow at times , forcing the foremast hands to cling like monkeys to the rail and rigging .