seventeen minutes past one in the
morning
At one in the morning , the hauling in of the sounding-line was not yet completed ; 1,670 fathoms were still out , which would entail some hours ' work . According to the commander 's orders , the fires had been lighted , and steam was being got up . The Susquehanna could have started that very instant . At that moment -LRB- it was seventeen minutes past one in the morning -RRB- Lieutenant Bronsfield was preparing to leave the watch and return to his cabin , when his attention was attracted by a distant hissing noise . His comrades and himself first thought that this hissing was caused by the letting off of steam ; but lifting their heads , they found that the noise was produced in the highest regions of the air . They had not time to question each other before the hissing became frightfully intense , and suddenly there appeared to their dazzled eyes an enormous meteor , ignited by the rapidity of its course and its friction through the atmospheric strata . This fiery mass grew larger to their eyes , and fell , with the noise of thunder , upon the bowsprit , which it smashed close to the stem , and buried itself in the waves with a deafening roar !