noon
The grey dawn came on , and the slumbering crew arose from the boat 's bottom , and ere noon the dead whale was brought to the ship . The Quadrant The season for the Line at length drew near ; and every day when Ahab , coming from his cabin cast his eyes aloft , the vigilant helmsman would ostentatiously handle his spokes , and the eager mariners quickly run to the braces , and would stand there with all their eyes centrally fixed on the nailed doubloon ; impatient for the order to point the ship 's prow for the equator . In good time the order came . It was hard upon high noon ; and Ahab , seated in the bows of his high-hoisted boat , was about taking his wonted daily observation of the sun to determine his latitude . Now , in that Japanese sea , the days in summer are as freshets of effulgences . That unblinkingly vivid Japanese sun seems the blazing focus of the glassy ocean 's immeasurable burning-glass . The sky looks lacquered ; clouds there are none ; the horizon floats ; and this nakedness of unrelieved radiance is as the insufferable splendors of God 's throne .