midnight
As for a new Perseus , well -- David knew him not . The second officer of the _ Andromeda _ was pacing the bridge with the slow alertness of responsibility . He would walk from port to starboard , glance forrard and aft , peer at the wide crescent of the starlit sea , stroll back to port , and again scan ship and horizon . Sometimes he halted in front of the binnacle lamp to make certain that the man at the wheel was keeping the course , South 15 West , set by Captain Coke shortly before midnight . His ears listened mechanically to the steady pulse-beats of the propeller ; his eyes swept the vague plain of the ocean for the sparkling white diamond that would betoken a mast-head light ; he was watchful and prepared for any unforeseen emergency that might beset the vessel intrusted to his care . But his mind dwelt on something far removed from his duties , though , to be sure , every poet who ever scribbled four lines of verse has found rhyme and reason in comparing women with stars , and ships , and the sea . If Philip Hozier was no poet , he was a sailor , and sailors are notoriously susceptible to the charms of the softer sex .