about eight
o'clock in the evening
So he laid him down in his little cabin to sleep , while the sun rose over the blue Mediterranean , while some passengers went ashore and others came on board , while the single word `` Milksop '' was spelt over a continent ; and he was still sleeping when the anchor was jerked up from its muddy bed , and the watchers on pier and harbour looked their last on the grand old Croonah . A breeze was blowing out in the open , one of those bright westerly breezes that bring a breath of the Atlantic into the Mediterranean , and often make the short passage from Malta to Gibraltar the worst part of the voyage from India to the Channel . None of the passengers took any interest in the morose second officer , and few of them remarked his absence from table during the two days ' passage . The Croonah arrived at Gibraltar after dark , took her mails and passengers on board , and proceeded down the Straits about eight o'clock in the evening . It was late autumn , and the breeze from the cool Atlantic still hurried in over the parched lands of Africa and Southern Europe . Tarifa light was sighted and left twinkling behind . Trafalgar stared out of the darkness ahead , and in its turn was left behind .