noon
Then another , and another with like result , until he has boarded nearly every vessel in the harbour having a gangway-plank out . Some of the skippers receive him even rudely , and one almost brutally , saying , `` We do n't want landlubbers on this craft . So cut ashore -- quick ! '' Henry Chester 's hopes , high-tide at noon , ere night are down to lowest ebb , and , greatly humiliated , he almost wishes himself back on the old farmstead by Godalming . He is even again considering whether it would not be better to give it up and go back , when his eyes chance to stray to a flag on whose corner is a cluster of stars on a blue ground , with a field of red and white bands alternating . It droops over the taffrail of a barque of some six hundred tons burden , and below it , on her stern , is lettered the _ Calypso _ . During his perambulations to and fro he has more than once passed this vessel , but the ensign not being English , he did not think of boarding her .