midnight
Apparently the tempest-loving demons of the deep were only waiting for the shades of night in order to carry on their revels with the greater ` go ' at our expense ; for no sooner had the evening closed in than the gale increased in force , and the sea waxed even angrier , so that by Four Bells in the first watch , that is at ten o'clock , in landsman 's parlance , the ship had to lie-to under storm staysails -- pitching and plunging bows under , and taking in some of the huge rollers occasionally over her forecastle , that swept down into the waist to such an extent that it was as much as the scuppers could do to get rid of the water as she rolled . Fortunately , we did not get any of this below , the hatches having been battened down early in the afternoon , subsequently to our mishap with the ` gashing-tub ' ; but , although this saved us some wet , it was far from pleasant on our mess-deck , the steam from the wet clothes of the fellows belonging to the watch just relieved , and the smell of the bilge from the place being shut up , making it resemble towards morning something like what I have read of an African slaver 's hold being in the middle latitudes . When day broke , I found , on turning out of my hammock , our ship riding a little easier , the rolling having abated considerably ; and , on going on deck shortly afterwards , though there was no order as usual to ` lash up and stow , ' the weather being too rough for that , the reason for this change for the better , so far as the uneasy motion was concerned , became apparent enough . The commodore had ordered a storm jib to be set , as well as the after - trysail , which was about the size of a good old-fashioned pocket - handkerchief ; and , instead of laying-to as we had been when I turned in close on midnight , the ship was now running before the south-easter and making good progress , too , out of the neighbourhood of the treacherous Bay . By breakfast-time we were making so much better weather of it that we were able to open the hatches , and the windsails were rigged up to let down some fresh air below , which enabled us to have a better meal than we expected ; so our hot cocoa and bread possessed an additional relish , not only from this circumstance , but also from the fact of our not having enjoyed anything hot since the previous day at dinner , the galley fires having been swamped out just before tea-time , thus forcing us to turn in supperless . Later on , as the gale slackened , we set our topsails close-reefed , and more ` fore-and-aft ' sail ; and , when the sun had got above our foreyard , the commodore ordered the topgallant-masts to be sent up , these having been housed when it came on to blow heavily . Our topgallants were consequently set above our close-reefed topsails , which some of the young seamen on board appeared to think a most extraordinary proceeding ; but one of the quarter-masters , who was an old hand , said he had often seen it done when sailing `` under old Fitzroy on the Pacific station , '' when their ship would be bowling along under this sail before a stiff nor ' - easter , in the run down from Vancouver to Callao , past the inhospitable Californian coast .