two in the morning
On the stairs he was seized with such a nausea that he could hardly keep from vomiting where he stood , but he rushed out upon the lower deck , gaining the rail with a swimming head . He sank back upon an iron capstan with a groan , weak and trembling , his eyes full of tears , a bursting feeling in his head . He was utterly miserable . It was about half-past two in the morning , and a cold raw wind was whistling through the cordage and flinging the steamer 's smoke down upon the decks and upon the water like a great veil of crêpe . A sickly half-light was spread out between the sea and the heavens . By its means he could barely distinguish great , livid blotches of fog or cloud whirling across the black sky , and the unnumbered multitude of white-topped waves rushing past , plunging and rising like a vast herd of black horses galloping on with shaking white manes . Low in the northeast horizon lay a long pale blur of light against which the bow of the steamer , inky black , rose and fell and heaved and sank incessantly .