eight o'clock
This rolling washed the bilge water up on the plates in the stoke hold and lifted them , so that the small Welsh coal , like the Lehigh stuff you get here , was washed into the limber and choked the pump suctions . Very soon the bilge began to fill . The old ship was leaking like a basket any way , and she took a heavy list to port . All my watch that night , from eight o'clock till twelve , I was on those bilge-pumps trying to make them draw , while the Chief looked after the engines . It was no joke , with her listed over like that , the platform under water and green seas coming down through the skylights . I thought of my pleasant home at Oakleigh Park then , the quiet autumn streets , the bright fire in the dining-room and the cosy warm bed . Oh yes , I thought of it , but not with regret .