3 p.m.
'' ` Erbert ` Enery Bates ! '' `` Wot cheer ! '' It was the morning of Speech-day on board the Industrial Training Ship _ Egeria _ -- July the 31st , to be precise . At 3 p.m. Sir Felix Felix-Williams , Baronet , would arrive to distribute the prizes . He would be attended by a crowd of ladies and gentlemen ; and the speeches , delivered beneath an awning on the upper deck , would be fully reported next day in the local newspapers . The weather was propitious . Just now -LRB- 11 a.m. -RRB- some half a dozen of the elder boys , attired in dirty white dungaree and barefooted , were engaged in swabbing out what , in her sea-going days , had been the _ Egeria 's _ ward-room , making ready to set out tables for an afternoon tea to follow the ceremony .