midnight
We were clear from the carcass ; sail had been made ; the wind was freshening ; the wild ocean darkness was intense . But that darkness was licked up by the fierce flames , which at intervals forked forth from the sooty flues , and illuminated every lofty rope in the rigging , as with the famed Greek fire . The burning ship drove on , as if remorselessly commissioned to some vengeful deed . So the pitch and sulphur-freighted brigs of the bold Hydriote , Canaris , issuing from their midnight harbors , with broad sheets of flame for sails , bore down upon the Turkish frigates , and folded them in conflagrations . The hatch , removed from the top of the works , now afforded a wide hearth in front of them . Standing on this were the Tartarean shapes of the pagan harpooneers , always the whale-ship 's stokers . With huge pronged poles they pitched hissing masses of blubber into the scalding pots , or stirred up the fires beneath , till the snaky flames darted , curling , out of the doors to catch them by the feet .