midnight
And it was exhilarating to stand right away aft , close by the weather taffrail , and watch the little beauty as she tore along with breathless speed through the dusky night . The sky was clear as a bell , save for a few detached fleeces of trade-cloud that came swooping along at frequent intervals athwart the stars , so that there was plenty of light to see by ; and it was as intoxicating as wine to merely stand abaft there , as I did , feeling the strong rush of the wind past me , and drinking in its invigorating freshness and coolness , as the deck heaved and plunged beneath my feet , and the bending masts swayed and reeled to and fro , the trucks sweeping long arcs among the dancing stars , and the wind piping high and shrill through the rigging , as the schooner leaped and plunged irresistibly forward , with a storm of spray flashing in over her weather cat-head and blowing aft as far as the mainmast at every buoyant upward leap of her to meet the sea , while a whole Niagara of hissing foam -- with an under-stratum of whirling clouds of lambent green sea-fire -- went swirling past the lee rail at a speed that made one giddy to look at . Five bells in the first watch saw us fairly abreast at Morant Point , and then , as the night was clear and the breeze steady , I went below and turned in . Nothing of any importance occurred during the next few days , and , carrying on upon the schooner to the last stitch that she could stagger under , we arrived off the northern extremity of the island of Martinique exactly at midnight on the fifth night after leaving Port Royal . I considered that we had now reached our cruising-ground , and that there was consequently no need for any further hurry . We therefore shortened sail to double-reefed mainsail , fore staysail , and jib , -- furling all our square canvas , -- and leisurely passed through the channel between Martinique and Dominica until we were some sixty miles to windward of both islands , when we headed the little hooker to the northward and _ ratched _ as far as the latitude of Antigua , then heaving about and returning over the same ground again . The first two days of our cruising proved utterly barren of results , but the time was by no means wasted , for , having sedulously exercised the crew in the working of the guns and in cutlass drill every day during our passage across from Port Royal , I now rigged up a floating target and gave them a little firing practice , taking care to have a man on the royal yard to give us timely notice of the appearance of any sail that perchance might be frightened away by the sound of firing ; and I was soon gratified at the discovery that I numbered among my crew several very fairly clever marksmen .