four in the morning
I can not describe Freeman 's ecstasies , and I wish I could only give an idea of the helmsman 's musical method . This latter worthy had easy steering to do , so he joined in ; he was fond of variety , and he sang some lines in a high falsetto which sounded like the whistling of the gaff -LRB- with perhaps a touch of razor-grinding added -RRB- ; then just when you expected him to soar off at a tangent to Patti 's topmost A , he let his voice fall to his boots , and emitted a most bloodcurdling bass growl , which carried horrid suggestions of midnight fiends and ghouls and the silent tomb . Still , his mates thought he was a musical prodigy ; he was entranced with the sweetness and power of his own performance , and the passengers were more than amused , so every one was satisfied . The gentlemen who vary my slumbers by howling `` The Rollicking Rams '' in eight different keys at four in the morning would call the ship 's company of that schooner soft . There are opinions and opinions . At any rate the hours passed softly away until the yacht ran clean into the thick of the fleet , and the merry , eldritch exchange of salutes began . The second breeze had been worse than the first , and many men had gone ; but the smacksmen , by a special mercy , have no time for morbid brooding .