midday
And after that the two of them sculled the boats a little apart ; for there might be a danger of their being dashed together by the first violence of the storm . And so came a time of waiting , with Josh and the bo ` sun each of them at the steering oars , and the rest of us stowed away under the coverings . From where I crouched near the bo ` sun , I had sight of Josh away upon our port side : he was standing up black as a shape of night against the mighty redness , when the boat came to the foamless crowns of the swells , and then gone from sight in the hollows between . Now midday had come and gone , and we had made shift to eat so good a meal as our appetites would allow ; for we had no knowledge how long it might be ere we should have chance of another , if , indeed , we had ever need to think more of such . And then , in the middle part of the afternoon , we heard the first cryings of the storm -- a far-distant moaning , rising and falling most solemnly . Presently , all the Southern part of the horizon so high up , maybe , as some seven to ten degrees , was blotted out by a great black wall of cloud , over which the red glare came down upon the great swells as though from the light of some vast and unseen fire . It was about this time , I observed that the sun had the appearance of a great full moon , being pale and clearly defined , and seeming to have no warmth nor brilliancy ; and this , as may be imagined , seemed most strange to us , the more so because of the redness in the South and East .