About midnight
When night fell , and with it what breeze that had been blowing , we lost sight of them altogether , and knew for the first time the whole terror of the situation . Black had indeed recovered much of his old calm , and drank long draughts of champagne ; but he sat silent , and uttered no word for many hours after the end of that citadel which had given him such great power . As for the little boat , it was a puny protection against the sweeping rollers of the Atlantic , and I doubt not that we had been drowned that very night if a storm of any moment had broken upon us . About midnight a thunderstorm got up from the south , and the sea , rising somewhat with it , wetted us to the skin . The lightning , terribly vivid and incessant , lighted up the whole sea again and again , showing each the other 's face , the face of a worn and fatigue-stricken man . And the rain and the sea beat on us until we shivered , cowering , and were numbed ; our hands stiffened with the salt upon them , so that we could scarce get the warming liquor to our lips . Yet Black held to his silence , moaning at rare intervals as he had moaned when the great ship sank .