And so he did his best not to think about it, but he didn't always succeed.
On the whole it was a very miserable three hours that he spent on lookout duty that night.

Once Bert crawled forward and shared his loneliness, but didn't remain very long, preferring the partial shelter of the house.

No one was ever much gladder to see the sky lighten in the east than was Perry that morning.

But even when a grey dawn had settled over the ocean the surroundings were not much more cheerful.

As Wink said, it was a bit better to drown by daylight than to do it in the dark, but, aside from the fact that the _Catspaw_ was still afloat, there wasn't much to be thankful for.
One of the cruisers was barely visible off to the northward, but the other was nowhere in sight.