three o'clock in the
morning
Moreover , though the orders are at present that the Fleet gather at Yarmouth , and many are already there 't is like that it may be changed in a day for Harwich or the Downs . I pray you get your meals at your inn to-day , for we are , as you see , full of work taking on board stores . If it please you to stay and watch what is doing here you are heartily welcome , but please tell the others that they had best not come off until late in the evening , by which time I will do what I can to have a place ready for them to sleep . We shall sail at the turn of the tide , which will be at three o'clock in the morning . '' Oliphant wrote a few lines to the gentlemen on shore , telling them that the captain desired that none should come on board until the evening , and having sent it off by their boatmen , telling them to return in time to take them back to dinner , he and Cyril mounted to the poop and surveyed the scene round them . The ship was surrounded with lighters and boats from the dockyards , and from these casks and barrels , boxes and cases , were being swung on board by blocks from the yards , or rolled in at the port-holes . A large number of men were engaged at the work , and as fast as the stores came on board they were seized by the sailors and carried down into the hold , the provisions piled in tiers of barrels , the powder-kegs packed in the magazine . ''