four o'clock
Twelve hundred tons of coal , distributed like a thick wall round us , make the place warm in the tropics . Forward , the stokeholds , dimly enough lit save when a furnace door opens and a fiery glow illuminates the bent back and soot-blurred face of some cosmopolitan fireman . Overhead , each lit by a single lamp , are the water-gauges -- green glass tubes in which the water ebbs and flows with the motion of the ship . Well , the time is going fast -- ` twill soon be four o'clock , eight bells , and I am relieved . What do I think of on `` watch '' ? That 's a question ! The engines chiefly , with an under-current of `` other things . ''