four o'clock in the morning
To add to our difficulties , Captain Booden put his head most frequently into the cuddy ; and when it emerged , he smelt dreadfully of gin . Lanky and I held a secret council , in which we agreed , in case he became intoxicated , we would rise up in mutiny and work the vessel on our own account . He shortly `` lost his head , '' as Lanky phrased it ; and slipping down on the deck , went quietly into the sleep of the gin-drunken . At four o'clock in the morning the gray fog grew grayer with the early dawning ; and as I gazed with weary eyes into the vague unknown that shut us in , Booden roused him from his booze , and seizing the tiller from my hand , bawled : '' ` Bout ship , you swab ! we 're on the Farralones ! '' And sure enough , there loomed right under our starboard quarter a group of conical rocks , steeply rising from the restless blue sea . Their wild white sides were crowded with chattering sea-fowl ; and far above , like a faint nimbus in the sky , shone the feeble rays of the lighthouse lantern , now almost quenched by the dull gleam of day that crept up from the water .