twelve o'clock
`` You are wrong , lad , especially in summer . You see , it is not fairly dark till nine , and you would n't turn in till ten , anyhow ; so that , really , you are only kept two hours out of your bunk , at that watch . It is getting light when you come up , at four ; and at five we begin to wash decks , and there is plenty to occupy you , so that it does n't seem long till eight bells . The others have to turn out at twelve o'clock , just when they are most sleepy ; and to be on watch for the four dark hours , and then go down just as it is getting light . `` On a cold night in winter , in the channel , I think perhaps the advantage is the other way . But , in fact , men get so accustomed to the four hours in , and the four hours out , that it makes very little difference to them how it goes . '' All day the brig kept on the same course , moving very slowly through the water , and passing the coast as much by aid of the current as by that of her sails .