noon
As much for the mental health of the men as anything else , Leonard worked them steadily . The day 's work was divided into morning and evening watches , because during the midday the iron barge reached a temperature where labor was impossible . During the cooler watches , the men painted desperately to cover the black expanse of the dock with red in order to reflect part of the palpitating heat rays . Through the idle noon periods , the crew lay about on gunny sacks under improvised awnings , with a man posted on the forward bridge as lookout . The colorful mazes of the Sargasso were as irritating as flowered wall paper in a sickroom . Even Hogan 's and Deschaillon 's spirits sagged under the brilliant sweltering sameness . The navvies moved about half naked , and burned brown as nuts .