midnight
It may have been a flash of honesty in him ; or mere prudential policy which , under the circumstance , imperiously forbade the slightest symptom of open disaffection , however transient , in the important chief officer of his ship . However it was , his orders were executed ; and the Burtons were hoisted . Queequeg in His Coffin Upon searching , it was found that the casks last struck into the hold were perfectly sound , and that the leak must be further off . So , it being calm weather , they broke out deeper and deeper , disturbing the slumbers of the huge ground-tier butts ; and from that black midnight sending those gigantic moles into the daylight above . So deep did they go ; and so ancient , and corroded , and weedy the aspect of the lowermost puncheons , that you almost looked next for some mouldy corner-stone cask containing coins of Captain Noah , with copies of the posted placards , vainly warning the infatuated old world from the flood . Tierce after tierce , too , of water , and bread , and beef , and shooks of staves , and iron bundles of hoops , were hoisted out , till at last the piled decks were hard to get about ; and the hollow hull echoed under foot , as if you were treading over empty catacombs , and reeled and rolled in the sea like an air-freighted demijohn . Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all Aristotle in his head .