about midnight
It was broad daylight when Sergeant Dunham awoke , and the exclamation of surprise that escaped him , as he rose to his feet and began to look about him , was stronger than it was usual for one so drilled to suffer to be heard . He found the weather entirely changed , the view bounded by driving mist that limited the visible horizon to a circle of about a mile in diameter , the lake raging and covered with foam , and the _ Scud _ lying-to . A brief conversation with his brother-in-law let him into the secrets of all these sudden changes . According to the account of Master Cap , the wind had died away to a calm about midnight , or just as he was thinking of heaving-to , to sound , for islands ahead were beginning to be seen . At one A.M. it began to blow from the north-east , accompanied by a drizzle , and he stood off to the northward and westward , knowing that the coast of New York lay in the opposite direction . At half-past one he stowed the flying-jib , reefed the mainsail , and took the bonnet off the jib . At two he was compelled to get a second reef aft ; and by half-past two he had put a balance-reef in the sail , and was lying-to .