midday
Cranze passed insults to casual strangers who came on board and did not know his little ways , and the casual strangers -LRB- after the custom of their happy country -RRB- tried to knife him , but were always knocked over in the nick of time , by some member of the _ Flamingo 's _ crew . Hamilton said there was a special providence which looks after drunkards of Cranze 's type , and declined to interfere ; and Cranze said he refused to be chided by a qualified teetotaller , and mixed himself further king 's pegs . Messrs. Bird , Bird and Co. , being of an economical turn of mind , did not fall into the error of overmanning their ships , and so as one of the mates chose to be knocked over by six months ' old malarial fever , Captain Kettle had practically to do a mate 's duty as well as his own . A mate in the mercantile marine is officially an officer and some fraction of a gentleman , but on tramp steamers and liners where cargo is of more account than passengers -- even when they dine at half-past six , instead of at midday -- a mate has to perform manual labors rather harder than that accomplished by any three regular deck hands . I do not intend to imply that Kettle actually drove a winch , or acted as stevedore below , or sweated over bales as they swung up through a hatch , but he did work as gangway man , and serve at the tally desk , and oversee generally while the crew worked cargo ; and his watch over the passengers was at this period of necessity relaxed . He tried hard to interest Hamilton in the mysteries of hold stowage , in order to keep him under his immediate eye . But Hamilton bluntly confessed to loathing anything that was at all useful , and so he perforce had to be left to pick his own position under the awnings , there to doze , and smoke cigarettes , and scribble on paper as the moods so seized him .