ten o'clock
`` Well , I thought from your look and the way you hailed me that you was a sea-faring gentleman , and on course you 'd ha ' known your own ship , '' said old Bob , with a wink of his one eye . `` Howsomever , we can beat about among the fleet till it 's dark , and then back to Portsmouth ; and then , do ye see , sir , we can come out to-morrow morning by daylight and try again . Maybe we shall have better luck . The convoy is sure not to sail in the night , and the tide wo n't serve till ten o'clock at earliest . '' `` This comes of dressing in nautical style , and assuming airs foreign to me , '' I thought to myself , though I could not help fancying that there was some quiet irony in the old man 's tone . His plan did not at all suit my notions . I was already beginning to feel very uncomfortable , bobbing and tossing about among the ships ; and I expected to be completely upset , unless I could speedily put my foot on something more stable than the cockleshell , or rather bean-pod , of a boat in which I sat .