three o'clock
He was greatly surprised to learn that I was not yet eighteen years of age , and was still growing , for although he appeared to be not more than twenty-five , he informed me that he was actually thirty-three , and I was a head taller than he , the fact being that I had a natural tendency toward bulkiness which my passion for athletics had further encouraged . He jocularly remarked that he hoped the authorities would have sense enough to appoint me to a battleship , for he was sure that in no other quarters would I find room to stand upright . We reached Marseilles without adventure at eight o'clock on the following morning , and , after breakfasting at the railway station , chartered a cab and drove down to the Joliet , where we found our ship , the _ Matsuma Maru _ , lying alongside a wharf piled yards high with crates , bales , and cases of all sorts and sizes waiting to be stowed in the ship 's holds . The skipper was somewhere ashore , it appeared , but we hunted up the chief officer and introduced ourselves , upon which we learned that every effort was being made to have the ship ready for sea by three o'clock that afternoon , but that it would be impossible for her to get away a minute earlier than that ; we therefore found the chief steward , got him to show us our cabins , and had our baggage carried aboard . Then we went ashore again and , Nakamura happening to learn that the place boasted a zoological garden , nothing would satisfy him but we must needs go there , which we did , afterwards finding our way to the handsome Museum . Then down into the town again to lunch , finally returning to the ship at a quarter to three . I had been accustomed to seeing work smartly done in our own navy , but I was amazed to see what a few hours of strenuous labour had effected upon that wharf .