midnight
It was only lying low ! It took us three days to get to the site of the lighthouse , which was marked by a buoy . We reached there on a quiet and peaceful evening , the sort that landlubber poets write about . A little after sundown it began to breeze up , and by four bells of the first watch , there was a stiffish wind , which at midnight began to climb into half a gale . `` Then the sea began to rise . It only takes a capful of wind to make things nasty on the bay , and that iron cylinder began to toss like a cork . We 'd left four men aboard the cylinder and by half an hour after midnight they were pumping for their lives .