midnight
Being exceedingly anxious , for the brig lay unwatched , I looked forth on one occasion longer than the others chose to venture , and beheld the most extravagant scene of raging commotion it could enter the brain of man to imagine . The night was as black as the bottom of a well ; but the prodigious swelling and flinging of white waters hove a faintness upon the air that was in its way a dim light , by which it was just possible to distinguish the reeling masts to the height of the tops , and to observe the figure of the brig springing black and trembling out of the head of a surge that had broken over and smothered her as in a cauldron , and to note the shapes of the nearer liquid acclivities as they bore down upon our weather bow , catching the brig fair under the bluff , and so sloping her that she seemed to stand end on , and so heeling her that the sea would wash to the height of the main hatch . Indeed , had she been loaded , and therefore deep , she could not have lived an hour in that hollow and frightful ocean ; but having nothing in her but ballast she was like a bladder , and swung up the surges and blew away to leeward like an empty cask . When the dawn broke something of its midnight fury went out of the gale . The carpenter made shift to sound the well , and to our great satisfaction found but little water , only as much as we had a right to suppose she would take in above . But it was impossible to stand at the pumps , so we returned to the cabin and brewed some cold punch and did what we could to keep our spirits hearty . By noon the wind had weakened yet , but the sea still ran very heavily , and the sky was uncommonly thick with piles of dusky , yellowish , hurrying clouds ; and though we could fairly reckon upon our position , the atmosphere was so nipping it was difficult to persuade ourselves that Cape Horn was not close aboard .