about
eleven o'clock in the evening before
but hope is so firmly rooted in the heart of man ! Moreover , there were two of us . Indeed I declare -LRB- though it may seem improbable -RRB- if I sought to destroy all hope -- if I wished to despair , I could not . The collision of the frigate with the cetacean had occurred about eleven o'clock in the evening before . I reckoned then we should have eight hours to swim before sunrise , an operation quite practicable if we relieved each other . The sea , very calm , was in our favour . Sometimes I tried to pierce the intense darkness that was only dispelled by the phosphorescence caused by our movements .