three in the morning
While he sat turning a large rib-bone over and over , in disgust at finding so little meat on it , and waiting for the boy to clear away , the boatswain , whose cabin could be seen from the berth on the larboard side , roused up from a nap , and began to contemplate his visage in his glass , to discover if he looked in any way as if he had been asleep . It must be understood that it is contrary to the principles of a boatswain worthy of the rank ever to require sleep . He would consider himself disgraced in the eyes of the whole crew , if he were caught taking a wink . A regular-built boatswain is often on deck from half-past three in the morning till eleven at night , and should it be bad weather , or from any other cause , frequently two or three times during the night also ; and as to his cabin , he merely looks in occasionally and keeps his donnage there . Now , to do him justice , Trundle was a thoroughgoing boatswain . While he was rubbing his eyes , to get the sleepiness out of them , pulling up his shirt-collar , and brushing back his hair , the demon of mischief put a thought into Dicky Sharpe 's head . To conceive , with Dicky , was to execute .