11 A.M.
I went from one to the other without any system whatever , searching for the ideal resting-place , and often thinking that I had found it : but only wearying of it at the thought that there was a yet deeper and dreamier in the world . But in this search I received a check , my God , which chilled me to the marrow , and set me flying from these places . * * * * * One evening , the 29th November , I dined rather late -- at eight -- sitting , as was my custom in calm weather , cross-legged on the cabin-rug at the port aft corner , a small semicircle of _ Speranza _ gold-plate before me , and near above me the red-shaded lamp with green conical reservoir , whose creakings never cease in the stillest mid-sea , and beyond the plates the array of preserved soups , meat-extracts , meats , fruit , sweets , wines , nuts , liqueurs , coffee on the silver spirit-tripod , glasses , cruet , and so on , which it was always my first care to select from the store-room , open , and lay out once for all in the morning on rising . I was late , seven being my hour : for on that day I had been engaged in the occasionally necessary , but always deferred , task of overhauling the ship , brushing here a rope with tar , there a board with paint , there a crank with oil , rubbing a door-handle , a brass-fitting , filling the three cabin-lamps , dusting mirrors and furniture , dashing the great neat-joinered plains of deck with bucketfulls , or , high in air , chopping loose with its rigging the mizzen top-mast , which since a month was sprained at the clamps , all this in cotton drawers under loose _ quamis _ , bare-footed , my beard knotted up , the sun a-blaze , the sea smooth and pale with the smooth pallor of strong currents , the ship still enough , no land in sight , yet great tracts of sea-weed making eastward -- I working from 11 A.M. till near 7 , when sudden darkness interrupted : for I wished to have it all over in one obnoxious day . I was therefore very tired when I went down , lit the central chain-lever lamp and my own two , washed and dressed in my bedroom , and sat to dinner in the dining-hall corner . I ate voraciously , with sweat , as usual , pouring down my eager brow , using knife or spoon in the right hand , but never the Western fork , licking the plates clean in the Mohammedan manner , and drinking pretty freely . Still I was tired , and went upon deck , where I had the threadbare blue-velvet easy-chair with the broken left arm before the wheel , and in it sat smoking cigar after cigar from the Indian D box , half-asleep , yet conscious .