midnight
So absorbed , at last , did they become at this business , that some of them , after being hard at work during a nightwatch on deck , would rob themselves of rest below , in order to have a brush at the cards . And as it is very difficult sleeping in the presence of gamblers ; especially if they chance to be sailors , whose conversation at all times is apt to be boisterous ; these fellows would often be driven out of the forecastle by those who desired to rest . They were obliged to repair on deck , and make a card-table of it ; and invariably , in such cases , there was a great deal of contention , a great many ungentlemanly charges of nigging and cheating ; and , now and then , a few parenthetical blows were exchanged . But this was not so much to be wondered at , seeing they could see but very little , being provided with no light but that of a midnight sky ; and the cards , from long wear and rough usage , having become exceedingly torn and tarry , so much so , that several members of the four suits might have seceded from their respective clans , and formed into a fifth tribe , under the name of `` Tar-spots . '' Every day the tobacco grew scarcer and scarcer ; till at last it became necessary to adopt the greatest possible economy in its use . The modicum constituting an ordinary `` chaw , '' was made to last a whole day ; and at night , permission being had from the cook , this self-same `` chaw '' was placed in the oven of the stove , and there dried ; so as to do duty in a pipe . In the end not a plug was to be had ; and deprived of a solace and a stimulus , on which sailors so much rely while at sea , the crew became absent , moody , and sadly tormented with the hypos .