Wednesday morning about five o'clock
Just then , like the `` late passenger , '' the late trawler came up . The captain of the steamer had seen it long before on the horizon doing its best to save the market , and good-naturedly delayed a little to take its fish on board , but another smack that came up a quarter of an hour or so after that , found the hatches closed , and heard the crushing reply to his hail -- `` Too late ! '' Then the carrying-steamer turned her sharp bow to the sou ' - west , put on full steam , and made for the Thames -- distant nearly 300 miles -- with over 2000 trunks of fresh fish on board , for the breakfast , luncheon and dinner tables of the Great City . Thus , if the steamer were to leave early on a Monday , it would arrive on Tuesday night and the fish be sold in the market on Wednesday morning about five o'clock . With little variation this scene is enacted every day , all the year round , on the North Sea . It may not be uninteresting to add , that on the arrival of the steamer at Billingsgate , the whole of her cargo would probably be landed and sold in less than one hour and a half . When the steamer left the fleet the wind was beginning to moderate , and all eyes were turned as usual towards the admiral 's smack to observe his movements .