midnight
As long before the coming of the Savior as it has been since , the Phoenicians were scouring this sea with their craft , founding colonies , and it is said they ventured out upon the Atlantic and went as far north as England , while amid the ruins of Tyre models of boats have been found with lines as fine as any that any modern ship-builder can draw . `` Nothing of mechanical achievement to me compares with a ship like this that we are sailing on . Panoplied in steel , with heart of fire , with iron arms picking up the burden of ten thousand horses ; facing the storm and the night without a quiver except that which comes of its own great heart 's throbbing , buoyant above the beating of the deep sea 's solemn pulses , lighted by imitation sunlight , and making its voyages almost with the precision of the hours -- what could be grander ? `` Standing on the deck , with the midnight black above and the ocean black below , feeling its regular pulse-beats and its onward plunges over its uneven path ; it is hard to shake off the impression that it is a grim Genie that has come to make ferries of the broad ocean , to draw the continents with their freights of nations closer together . `` But suppose , Tom , that the onward rush of this ship should bring us close beside three little ships , two with no decks and the larger one only ninety feet in length , we would look down upon them with a kind of pity , would we not ? `` Still , with such vessels , the mystery of the sea was first cleared up ; with such vessels , the vail was pushed back from the frowning face of the ocean ; with such vessels , the New World was found . `` It was from over one of those open decks that the cry ` A Light ! '