midnight
At last the captain , being anxious at his non-appearance , and fearing that some accident must have happened , ordered the second mate to hang on to the whale while he beat the ship up in the direction Mr Griffiths 's boat had taken . The hours went by and the wind increased and the sea got up . `` Never mind , '' said the captain ; `` Harvey will hang on under the lee of the whale even if it does come on to blow harder , and he 'll be safe enough . '' At last , at about half-an-hour to midnight , we made out a faint light dead to windward . It took us some time to get up to it , for , though we were sure it must come from the mate 's boat , it did n't approach us . As we got near we could distinguish the people hanging to the bottom of the boat , one of them sitting astride of her and holding up a lantern . We immediately hove-to , and lowered a boat to take them on board .