three in the morning
While the shades of evening fell and deepened into a night of unusual magnificence , the profound calm continued , and the ship lay motionless on the sea . The people , too , kept moving quietly about the deck , either induced thereto by the sweet influences around them , or by some indefinable impression that a storm sometimes succeeds a calm as well in the moral as the material world . As the ship had no way through the water , it was impossible for the rash youth to carry out his plan either during the first or middle watches . He was therefore compelled to give it up , at least for that night , and about half-past three in the morning he lay down to rest a few minutes , as he was to be called by Stewart to relieve the watch at four o'clock . He had barely fallen into a troubled slumber when he was awakened by Stewart , and rose at once to go on deck . He observed in passing that young Hayward , the mate of his watch , had lain down to take a nap on the arm-chest . Mr Hallet , the other midshipman of the watch , had also gone to sleep somewhere , for he was not to be seen .