midnight
I did not know what to make of the weather . Had it not been for the steady , continuous fall of the mercury I should have expected nothing worse than a fresh breeze from the westward , preceded perhaps by a thunder-squall ; but the barometer indicated something more serious than that , yet the sky gave no verifying sign of the approach of anything like a heavy blow . But I had long ago taken in everything except the boom-foresail , to save the sails from beating themselves to pieces , so I was pretty well prepared for any eventuality . It was close upon midnight when the change came , and then it was nothing at all alarming , being merely a sudden but by no means violent squall out from about due west , followed by a heavy downpour of rain . The rain lasted about a quarter of an hour , and when it ceased we were again becalmed . Suddenly I became conscious of a faint luminousness somewhere in the atmosphere , and looking about me to discover the cause , I observed what looked like a ball of lambent , greenish flame clinging to the foremast-head , where it swayed about , elongating and contracting with the roll of the ship , exactly as a gigantic soap-bubble might have done . It clung there , swaying , for some moments , and then glided slowly down the mast until it reached the jib-stay , down which it slid to the bowsprit , whence , after wavering for a few seconds , it travelled along the bowsprit , inboard , and vanished , not , however , until it had revealed by its corpse-like light the horror-stricken features of some half a dozen of the watch huddled together on the forecastle , in attitudes every curve and bend of which were eloquent of consternation .