midnight
The binnacle light was also carefully masked , and the skylight obscured by a close-fitting painted canvas cover that had been made for the express purpose . There was , therefore , nothing whatever to betray our presence except the soft rustling of our canvas , and , as the same sounds would prevail on board any other craft that might happen to drift within our vicinity , we were in hopes that , by keeping our ears wide open , we might become aware of their presence before our own was betrayed . It is true that these precautions greatly increased the risk of collision with other vessels ; but we trusted that the watchfulness upon which we depended for the discovery of other craft in our neighbourhood would suffice to avert any such danger . In this way the time slowly dragged along until midnight , when I was called to take charge of the deck . Upon turning out I found that there was no improvement in the weather , except that the faint breathing from the northward had strengthened sufficiently to put our canvas to sleep , and to increase our speed to a trifle over six knots ; but it was just as dark and thick as ever . Lovell , whom I was relieving , informed me that nothing whatever had been seen or heard during his watch ; and that now , by our dead reckoning , we were , as nearly as possible , thirty miles south-by-west of Portland Bill . The skipper was still on deck ; he had been up all through the first watch , and announced his intention of keeping the deck until the weather should clear .