midnight
The same sea smashed the jolly boat . `` I was insensible for a couple of days , and when I crept on deck again I found the other boat had been stove in . The fore and main topgallant masts were gone . I was standing on the quarterdeck , when , just at midnight , I was startled by a most unearthly caterwauling , as though all the furies in the infernal regions had broken loose . I looked in the direction it came from , and , behold ! there stood the cat like a frightful apparition . He seemed four times his original size , and his eyes were like two gleaming fires .