midnight
`` Come away now , '' said I , `` your friends will be missing you ; and what will become of your first , second , third , and fourth without you ? '' It did not tend to raise the spirits of the four noble mariners as they passed round the guns to hear the laughter and cries of `` nor ' - east by east it is , sir , '' which greeted their passage . Nor did they quite recover till they returned to the arms of their comrades , who bore them off with the glorious news that a fresh cask of rum had been broached , and that the lights of Yarmouth were already visible on the horizon . It was past midnight , and in two hours the summer night would be past . After that , further mystification as to our course would be impossible ; but could we hold on till then , with half a gale of wind behind us , we should be well over to the Dutch side , and clear at any rate of the mutinous atmosphere which infected Yarmouth Roads and the Nore . The men , having , as I supposed , satisfied themselves that the _ Zebra _ was being sailed according to their own directions , decided to wait till daylight , by which time they counted on the encouragement and company of the Yarmouth mutineers , before they finally hoisted the red flag and took possession of the ship . Meanwhile they applied themselves assiduously to the liquor , an indulgence which , in the case of a good many of the land-lubbers of their company , must have been seriously spoiled by the rolling of the ship and their first acquaintance since we left Dublin with really dirty weather .