midnight
The spectacle on deck was appalling , and the sounds were appalling also . The blast rushed by with a deep ground note which rose in pitch to a yell as the gust hurled itself through the cordage ; each sea that came down seemed likely to be the last , but the sturdy yacht -- no floating chisel was she -- ran up the steep with a long , slow glide , and smashed into the black hollow with a sharp explosive sound . Marion Dearsley might have been pardoned had she shown tremors as the flying mountains towered over the vessel . Once a great black wall heaved up and doubled the intensity of the murky midnight by a sinister shade ; there came a horrible silence , and then , with a loud bellow , the wall burst into ruin and crashed down on the ship in a torrent which seemed made up of a thousand conflicting streams . The skipper silently dashed aft , flung his arms round Tom Lennard , and pinned him to the mast ; Mr. Blair hung on , though he was drifted aft with his feet off the deck until he hung like a totally new description of flying signal ; the ladies were drenched by the deluge which rushed down below , and the steward , when he saw the water swashing about over his cabin floor , exclaimed with discreet bitterness on the folly of inviting ladies to witness such a spectacle as a North Sea gale . Tom observed : `` The grandeur is -- ah ! fahscinating , but it 's rather damp grandeur .