midnight
`` Stewart Moore , ma'am . Moore is the name , but people always call him Stewart Moore ; just say that in a loud clear voice , and you 'll soon have him . '' With the most profuse protestations of gratitude and promises of pork `` a discretion , '' if I ever sojourned at Ballinasloe , my fair friend proceeded to follow my advice , and descended to the cabin . Some hours after , I also betook myself to my rest , from which , however , towards midnight I was awoke by the heavy working and pitching of the little vessel , as she laboured in a rough sea . As I looked forth from my narrow crib , a more woe-begone picture can scarcely be imagined than that before me . Here and there through the gloomy cabin lay the victims of the fell malady , in every stage of suffering , and in every attitude of misery . Their cries and lamentings mingled with the creaking of the bulk-heads and the jarring twang of the dirty lamp , whose irregular swing told plainly how oscillatory was our present motion .