midnight
I thought to myself what good will all their wealth be to them if the ship goes down ? More than once I went below with a lantern to see if we were keeping the water under , but I saw too plainly that , in spite of all we were doing , it was gaining on us . We searched about to try and find out where the leak was , but we might as well have tried to stop the holes in a sieve . At midnight the water had risen halfway to the second tier of casks . Still all hands worked on , hoping that by sunrise a sail might appear to take us off . I saw too plainly that the ship was sinking , but it was very important to have light , that we might see how best to launch the boats . Day seemed very , very long in coming .