noon
I know not whether all seamen feel as I do ; but I have witnessed so many miraculous escapes , so many sudden reverses , so much , beyond all hope and conception , achieved by a reliance upon Providence and your own exertions , that , under the most critical circumstances , I never should despair . If struggling in the centre of the Atlantic , with no vessel in sight , no strength remaining , and sinking under the wave that boiled in my ear , as memory and life were departing , -- still , as long as life _ did _ remain , as long as recollection held her seat , I never should abandon Hope , -- never believe that it is all over with me , -- till I awoke in the next world , and found it confirmed . What would these men have valued their lives at in the morning ? Yet at noon a change took place : the weather evidently moderated fast ; and silence , that had reigned for so many hours , lost his empire , and the chances of being saved began to be calculated . A reef of rocks , many of them above water , over which the breakers still raged , lay between the wreck and the shore , and the certainty of being dashed to pieces precluded all attempts at reaching it , till the weather became more moderate and the sea less agitated . But when might that be ? -- and how long were they to resist the united attacks of hunger and fatigue ?