night about eleven o'clock
All at once the captain closed his chronometer with a snap . We were over the bar and into the Atlantic , and that is how the captain got the _ Arrowic _ out of New York Bay . `` Ye can play yer jokes on Nature , An ' play 'em slick , She 'll grin a grin , but , landsakes , friend , Look out fer the kick ! '' One night about eleven o'clock I stood at the stern of that fine Atlantic steamship , the _ City of Venice , _ which was ploughing its way through the darkness towards America . I leaned on the rounded bulwark and enjoyed a smoke as I gazed on the luminous trail the wheel was making in the quiet sea . Some one touched me on the shoulder , saying , `` Beg pardon , sir ; '' and , on straightening up , I saw in the dim light a man whom at first I took to be one of the steerage passengers . I thought he wanted to get past me , for the room was rather restricted in the passage between the aft wheelhouse and the stern , and I moved aside .