midnight
And , best of all , the indication was of such a character as permitted us to indulge the hope that , although the calm was about to give way to a breeze , we were likely to be favoured with weather fine enough to permit of our pursuing our voyage under the most favourable conditions . This symptom of approaching change merely consisted in the gathering in the heavens of a thin veil of mottled , fine-weather cloud , just dense enough to obscure most of the lesser stars and render the night rather dark , while a few of the brighter stars peeped through the openings between the clouds at tolerably frequent intervals , permitting us to steer our course without having recourse to the lantern or compass . The prospect of a coming breeze seemed to cheer the men and endow them with renewed vigour , for they gave way with something like a will , while they occasionally went so far as to exchange a muttered ejaculation of encouragement one with another . It happened to be my trick at the yoke-lines until midnight , I having relieved young Lindsay at four bells . I was sitting in the stern - sheets , with my eyes intently fixed upon a particularly bright star that gleamed out through the clouds at frequent intervals right over the boat 's nose , at an altitude of about thirty degrees above the horizon , and which I had consequently selected as a suitable guide to steer by . It is a curious fact , well-known to sailors , that an object can be better seen on a dark night at sea by looking at the sky slightly _ above _ or to one side of it , rather than directly _ at _ it ; hence it was that , as I kept my eye intently fixed upon the star immediately ahead , I suddenly became aware of the presence of a small , dark object some three points on our starboard bow . I immediately looked straight at it , but could then see nothing ; whereupon I looked into the sky rather above the point where I knew it to be , when I again caught sight of it .