about five o'clock in the
evening
He added a pretty broad hint that in his opinion the officers were nearly , if not quite as bad as the men , and finished up by swearing roundly that not a man or boy , forward or aft , should set foot on shore , even though the ship should remain in harbour until she grounded upon her own beef-bones . This was exasperating enough in all conscience , even for the hands forward , who , though there were certainly some rough characters among them , were by no means _ all _ bad -- indeed a full half of the entire crew were really as smart willing fellows as one need wish to see ; but it was even worse for the officers , for we had all been looking eagerly forward to a certain ball which was about to be given by the governor , to which every one of us had received an invitation . The disappointment was so keen and so general that good-natured `` old David '' -- as our genial `` first '' was dubbed by all hands -- took it upon himself to respectfully remonstrate with the skipper upon so arbitrary and high-handed a treatment of the ship 's company , with no result , however , except that the first lieutenant received an unmitigated snubbing for his pains . The revictualling of the ship was completed about five o'clock in the evening upon which the ball was to take place ; there was plenty of time , therefore , for us aft to have availed ourselves of the governor 's invitation had the skipper seen fit , but he remained obdurate , and we consequently had to content ourselves with watching the departure of the officers from the other ships , and framing such excuses as came uppermost at the moment in reply to the inquiries of such of them as passed near us as to why we were not going . This was made all the more difficult from the fact that , though we were under orders to sail at daybreak next morning , there were no less than three other ships in harbour similarly circumstanced , the officers of which were nevertheless going to be present at the ball . The only consolation we could find was in the reflection that , whereas the others would commence the duties of the next day fagged out with a long night 's dancing , we should rise to them refreshed , with a more or less sound night 's rest ; and with this small crumb of comfort we were fain to go below and turn in . When the hands were called next morning it was found that Captain Pigot was still absent from the ship , but as he was expected to turn up at any moment the messenger was passed and the cable hove short .