eleven o'clock in the morning
There our conversation came to an abrupt close ; the bugle summoning us to supper , and Mick being extremely particular , I found , never to be late at meal-times if he could possibly help it ! The next morning , after the usual routine of lashing up and stowing our hammocks in the nettings , on the completion of our breakfast , it was the turn of the second division of the starboard watch , to which we belonged , as I have already detailed , to go to school in the big room on the lower deck aft , where we had passed our original initiatory examination before signing our papers . The boys were given very fair play in respect of their nautical education , taking each department of their instruction turn and turn about in regular order . For instance , if the port watch attended school from Three Bells to Seven Bells in the forenoon -- that is , in shore time , from half-past nine to half-past eleven o'clock in the morning -- the starboard watch would be engaged in seamanship or gunnery instruction ; while , in the afternoon their respective avocations would be reversed , the ` starbowlines ' going to their books , and the port watch occupying themselves with the other drills . This day , as I have said , we went to school after inspection and prayers by the chaplain on the upper deck , which , I should have mentioned , was the usual routine every morning when breakfast was finished and the mess-tables and decks below swept clean and made tidy . I remember one of the schoolmasters impressed me very much during a geography lesson , by showing us on the globe how extensive our national possessions were , and how it became us as British sailors to maintain our rights on every land and sea where the Union Jack of Old England had ever once floated . I declare I can recollect his very words .