about two o'clock in the morning
The difference was very material to me . An Englishman , knowing the vice of his countrymen , would have placed the wine underneath , and the tobacco above . Unfortunately it was , in this instance , the reverse , and my men very soon helped themselves to as much as rendered them nearly useless to me , being more than half seas over . We got on pretty well , however , till about two o'clock in the morning , when the man at the helm , unable to wake the other two seamen to fetch him a drop , thought he might trust the brig to steer herself for a minute , while he quenched his thirst at the wine-cask : the vessel instantly broached to , that is , came with her broadside to the wind and sea , and away went the mainmast by the board . Fortunately , the foremast stood . The man who had just quitted the helm had not time to get drunk , and the other two were so much frightened that they got sober . We cleared the wreck as well as we could , got her before the wind again , and continued on our course .