midnight
The outlandish fashion of her shrouds , the collars of her stays , the stirrups , seizings , Flemish-horses , gaskets , -- all the wilderness of her rigging , bore unequivocal traces of her origin . But , perhaps , my pleasantest hours were those which I spent , stretched out on a pile of old sails , in the fore-top ; lazily dozing to the craft 's light roll . Frequently , I descended to the cabin : for the fiftieth time , exploring the lockers and state-rooms for some new object of curiosity . And often , with a glimmering light , I went into the midnight hold , as into old vaults and catacombs ; and creeping between damp ranges of casks , penetrated into its farthest recesses . Sometimes , in these under-ground burrowings , I lighted upon sundry out-of-the-way hiding places of Annatoo 's ; where were snugly secreted divers articles , with which she had been smitten . In truth , no small portion of the hull seemed a mine of stolen goods , stolen out of its own bowels . I found a jaunty shore-cap of the captain 's , hidden away in the hollow heart of a coil of rigging ; covered over in a manner most touchingly natural , with a heap of old ropes ; and near by , in a breaker , discovered several entire pieces of calico , heroically tied together with cords almost strong enough to sustain the mainmast .