midnight
The breeze had blown up into a gale . The night overhead-was starless and moonless , but every minute the black heaven was split by spurts of lightning , which showed the laboring , dishevelled ship set among great mountains of breaking seas . The sight would have been bad from a well-manned , powerful steamboat ; from the deck of the derelict it approached the terrific . With the seas constantly crashing on board of her , to have left the hatches open would have been , in her semi-waterlogged condition , to court swamping , and after midnight these were battened down , and the men with the shovels worked among the frightened , squeaking rats in the closed-in box of the hold . There were four on board the ship during that terrible night who openly owned to being cowed , and freely bewailed their insanity in ever being lured away from the _ M'poso _ . Dayton-Philipps had sufficient self-control to keep his feelings , whatever they were , unstated ; but Kettle faced all difficulties with indomitable courage and a smiling face . `` I believe , '' said Dayton-Philipps to him once when they were taking a spell together at the clanking pumps , `` you really glory in finding yourself in this beastly mess . ''