about eight o'clock
The fracas was owing to the captain 's mismanagement , and the manners and customs of the navy at the beginning of the nineteenth century . The conversation at the tables of the higher ranks of the service in those days , unless ladies were present , was generally such as a boy could not listen to without injury to his better feelings . I was therefore `` hinted off ; '' but with due respect to my captain , who is still living , I should have been sent on board of my ship and cautioned against the bad habits of the natives of North Corner and Barbican ; and if I could not be admitted to the mysterious conversation of a captain 's table , I should have been told in a clear and decided manner to depart , without the needless puzzle of an innuendo , which I did not and could not understand . I returned on board about eight o'clock , where Murphy had gone before me , and prepared a reception far from agreeable . Instead of being welcomed to my berth , I was received with coldness , and I returned to the quarter-deck , where I walked till I was weary , and then leaned against a gun . From this temporary alleviation , I was roused by a voice of thunder , `` Lean off that gun . '' I started up , touched my hat , and continued my solitary walk , looking now and then at the second lieutenant , who had thus gruffly addressed me .