three in
the morning
But the reservoirs were filling with water , and the Nautilus was slowly descending . At 1,000 feet deep it stopped ; its screw beat the waves , and it advanced straight towards the north at a speed of fifteen miles an hour . Towards night it was already floating under the immense body of the iceberg . At three in the morning I was awakened by a violent shock . I sat up in my bed and listened in the darkness , when I was thrown into the middle of the room . The Nautilus , after having struck , had rebounded violently . I groped along the partition , and by the staircase to the saloon , which was lit by the luminous ceiling .