six o'clock
It was also proposed to take away the long-nine from forward , and to substitute for it a long-eighteen between the masts . These alterations accorded strictly with my own views upon the subject , and were precisely what I should have suggested , had I been asked . There had been some little talk about increasing the height of her bulwarks , but this , I was glad to hear , had been overruled ; for it would certainly have gone far toward spoiling her light , jaunty , graceful appearance . It took the dockyard people just another week to complete the proposed alterations , during which I visited the craft every morning , returning to my quarters at Mr Finnie 's in time for their six o'clock dinner . On the day week after my first visit she was out of Fisher 's hands , and as I left her late that afternoon I thought I had never seen a prettier little craft . Her tall , slim , taper spars had a jaunty little rake aft , and were encumbered with only so much rigging as was absolutely necessary to prevent them from going over the side . Her yards , though light , were of immense spread , and the new suit of sails with which she had been fitted fore and aft , and which had been stretching all the week and were permanently bent only that same morning , gleamed in the brilliant sunshine , white as snow .