About midnight
Accordingly , communication with the shore was limited to a daily statement from the ship of her position at noon , and to the acknowledgment of the same by the electrician at Bombay . One of the greatest dangers in paying-out consists in changing from tank to tank when one is emptied , and a full one has to be commenced . This was always an occasion of great interest and anxiety . About midnight of the 19th the change to the fore-tank was made , and nearly every soul in the ship turned out to see it . The moon was partially obscured , but darkness was made visible by a row of lanterns hung at short intervals along the trough through which the cable was to be passed , making the ship look inconceivably long . As Robin Wright hurried along the deck he observed that both port and starboard watches were on duty , hid in the deep shadow of the wheels , or standing by the bulwark , ready for action . Traversing the entire length of the deck -- past the houses of the sheep and pigs ; past the great life-boats ; past the half-closed door of the testing-room , where the operators maintained their unceasing watch in a flood of light ; past the captain 's cabin , a species of land-mark or half-way house ; past a group of cows and goats lying on the deck chewing the cud peacefully , and past offices and deck-cabins too numerous to mention , -- he came at last to the fore-tank , which was so full of cable that the hands ready to act , and standing on the upper coil , had to stoop to save their heads from the deck above .