about ten
o'clock
The morning was fine , the oily sea heaved without a sparkle , and there was a queer white misty patch in the sky like a halo of the sun . The fore-deck , packed with Chinamen , was full of sombre clothing , yellow faces , and pigtails , sprinkled over with a good many naked shoulders , for there was no wind , and the heat was close . The coolies lounged , talked , smoked , or stared over the rail ; some , drawing water over the side , sluiced each other ; a few slept on hatches , while several small parties of six sat on their heels surrounding iron trays with plates of rice and tiny teacups ; and every single Celestial of them was carrying with him all he had in the world -- a wooden chest with a ringing lock and brass on the corners , containing the savings of his labours : some clothes of ceremony , sticks of incense , a little opium maybe , bits of nameless rubbish of conventional value , and a small hoard of silver dollars , toiled for in coal lighters , won in gambling-houses or in petty trading , grubbed out of earth , sweated out in mines , on railway lines , in deadly jungle , under heavy burdens -- amassed patiently , guarded with care , cherished fiercely . A cross swell had set in from the direction of Formosa Channel about ten o'clock , without disturbing these passengers much , because the Nan-Shan , with her flat bottom , rolling chocks on bilges , and great breadth of beam , had the reputation of an exceptionally steady ship in a sea-way . Mr. Jukes , in moments of expansion on shore , would proclaim loudly that the `` old girl was as good as she was pretty . '' It would never have occurred to Captain MacWhirr to express his favourable opinion so loud or in terms so fanciful . She was a good ship , undoubtedly , and not old either .