about nine o'clock
Here Ben shoved the ale to Turner , who drank a little and proceeded , while Ben took a swig and passed it round . `` Well , you see , messmates , the first lieutenant had been washing the decks on the morning before , and the carpenter had been ordered to let the water in , when it was found that the water-cock , which was about three feet below the water-line , was out of order , and it was necessary that it should be repaired . The foreman came off from the dockyard , and stated that it was necessary that the ship should be careened over to port sufficiently to raise the mouth of the pipe -- which went through the ship 's timbers below -- clean out of the water , that they might work at it ; so , between seven and eight o'clock on that morning , the whole of the larboard guns were run out as far as they could be , and of course the larboard lower deck ports were open ; the starboard guns were also run in amidships , and secured by the tackles ; the shifting over of this great weight of metal brought the larboard lower deck port-cills just level with the water ; the men were then able to get at the mouth of the pipe to the water-cock on the starboard side , as it was clean out of water , and for about an hour they were working away hard at it . `` It was about nine o'clock , we had just finished our breakfasts , and the hands had been turned up , when the last lighter , with the rum on board , came alongside . She was a sloop of fifty tons , called the ` Lark , ' and belonged to three brothers , whose names I forget . She was secured to the larboard side of the ship ; and the hands were piped ` clear lighter . ' Some of our men were in the lighter slinging the casks , others at the yard tackle and stay-falls hoisting in , some in the spirit-room stowing away .