six o'clock
A little change will do me good ; and I should like very much to see this new ship of yours , as well as to meet Vavassour again , whom I have not seen for quite a number of years . Yes , certainly , I will go over with you . '' Thus it was arranged . We wrote and dispatched our letters , spent the remainder of the day in making our preparations , and started on our journey soon after ten o'clock the next morning , posting it all the way to Portsmouth , where we arrived at six o'clock the same evening , and put up at the `` George , '' where Captain Vavassour had established himself . Of course , it was scarcely in accordance with strict naval etiquette for me , a mere midshipman , to presume to quarter myself in the hotel that my captain honoured with his patronage , but the circumstances were exceptional in so far as that I was with my father ; moreover , it was to be for but one night , and the skipper was far too fine and manly a fellow to take notice of so insignificant a breach of the unwritten law as I was committing . My father and I dined with him that night , incidentally making the acquaintance of Mr Malcolm Adair , the _ Europa 's _ first lieutenant ; and on the following morning , immediately after breakfast , I proceeded on board the receiving hulk , reported myself , then returned to the shore and made my way to Number 3 basin , in which the frigate was undergoing the process of being rigged and prepared for sea . I had not served for two and a half years in the Mediterranean without learning something of what constituted a good model of a ship , and I no sooner set eyes upon the _ Europa _ than I fell violently in love with her .