noon
Captain Toynbee , the late highly respected and admired Marine Superintendent of the British Meteorological Office , has told us how , during a cyclone which he rode out in the HOTSPUR at Sandheads , the mouth of the Hooghly , the three naked topgallant-masts of his ship , though of well-tested timber a foot in diameter , and supported by all the usual network of stays , and without the yards , were snapped off and carried away solely by the violence of the wind . It must , of course , have been an extreme gust , which did not last many seconds , for no cable that was ever forged would have held the ship against such a cataclysm as that . This gentleman 's integrity is above suspicion , so that no exaggeration could be charged against him , and he had the additional testimony of his officers and men to this otherwise incredible fact . The terrible day wore on , without any lightening of the tempest , till noon , when the wind suddenly fell to a calm . Until that time , the sea , although heavy , was not vicious or irregular , and we had not shipped any heavy water at all . But when the force of the wind was suddenly withdrawn , such a sea arose as I have never seen before or since . Inky mountains of water raised their savage heads in wildest confusion , smashing one another in whirlpools of foam .