four p.m.
I said to her , laughing , `` I do n't wonder that it does , to your inexperienced eyes , my dear . '' But I had never seen a twentieth part of the quantity , and , in reality , I was pretty much of her opinion . However , at two p.m. on the afternoon of the sixth day , that is to say , when we were sixty-six days out , John Steadiman who had gone aloft , sang out from the top , that the sea was clear ahead . Before four p.m. a strong breeze springing up right astern , we were in open water at sunset . The breeze then freshening into half a gale of wind , and the Golden Mary being a very fast sailer , we went before the wind merrily , all night . I had thought it impossible that it could be darker than it had been , until the sun , moon , and stars should fall out of the Heavens , and Time should be destroyed ; but , it had been next to light , in comparison with what it was now . The darkness was so profound , that looking into it was painful and oppressive -- like looking , without a ray of light , into a dense black bandage put as close before the eyes as it could be , without touching them .