midnight
* * * * * Of all this Master Tom knew nothing . The report of the cracker seemed to him only an echo in his brain of a sound that had been in his ears for thirty-six weary hours . The noise of a heavy sea beating against the ship 's side in a gale . It was over now , and he was keeping the midnight watch on deck , gazing upon the liquid green of the waves , which , heaving and seething after storm , were lit with phosphoric light , and as the ship held steadily on her course , poured past at the rate of twelve knots an hour in a silvery stream . Faster than any ship can sail his thoughts travelled home ; and as old times came back to him , he hardly knew whether what he looked at was the phosphor-lighted sea , or green gelatine paper barred with silver . And did the tutor speak ? Or was it the voice of some sea-monster sounding in his ears ?