midnight
By the end of the first dog-watch the wind had increased to half a gale , the sea had drawn abeam , and the ship was rolling her lee hammock-rails under . The Captain , therefore , ordered the topgallantsails to be clewed up and furled , the flying-jib to be stowed , and a couple of reefs to be taken in the topsails ; for , as he remarked , we were not bound anywhere in particular , were in no hurry , and might as well snug the ship down for the night while we had daylight enough left to see what we were doing . The night closed down upon us early , and so dark that we could not see as far as the length of the ship , there being no moon , while the light of the stars was completely obscured by the dense canopy of storm-wrack that overshadowed us , the only objects visible outside the bulwarks being the faintly phosphorescent heads of the breaking seas as they swept down menacingly upon us from to windward ; the air was raw and chill , although it was only the first week in September ; the decks were wet and sloppy with the driving rain and spray ; and those of us who were on watch looked thoroughly miserable as , encased from head to foot in oilskins and sou ` westers , we paced to and fro , availing ourselves to the utmost of such shelter as was afforded by the bulwarks and the boats stowed on the booms . By midnight the wind had further increased to such an extent that sail was still further reduced , the courses being taken off the ship , the jib stowed , and the mizen brailed in , leaving nothing set but the three double-reefed topsails and the fore and main-topmast staysails . Yet , unpleasant as was the weather , we had at least one consolation : the ship behaved splendidly , sailing fast through the water , and going along as dry as a bone , save for the spray that was blown from the crests of the waves and came driving athwart our decks in blinding and drenching showers . When at length the day broke , it revealed the ship hove-to under close-reefed fore and main topsails , and fore-topmast staysail , the central object in the midst of a grey and desolate picture , the dreary character of which it would be difficult to surpass . It was now blowing a whole gale from the South-West , the wind having backed during the night ; the sky was an unbroken expanse of dark , slate-coloured cloud athwart the face of which tattered shreds of dirty grey vapour rapidly swept ; the sea , of an opaque greyish-green tint , ran high and steep , crested with great curling heads of pallid froth , flecked here and there with fragments of seaweed , and our horizon was restricted to a circle of little more than a mile in diameter by the driving mist and rain .