midnight
Ready to cast off , Mr. Chapin . '' The schooner was freed of the `` puffing abomination , '' the smoke of which sooted the _ Seamew 's _ clean sails . The heavy hawser splashed overboard and the schooner staggered away rather drunkenly at first , tacking among the larger craft anchored out there in the harbor . The wind was not a very helpful one and soon after midnight it fell almost calm . There were only light airs to urge the _ Seamew _ on . Yet she glided through the starlit murk in a ghostly fashion as though some monstrous submarine hand forced her seaward . The water chuckled and gurgled under her bow , flashing in ripples now and then .