midnight
`` Aye , aye , sir , '' said the first officer , Lieutenant Frank Chadwick . `` Ready at four , sir , '' said the engineer officer , Thomas ; and left his dinner for a short trip to the engine room to push some belated repairs . `` Send a patrol ashore to round up the liberty party , '' continued Captain Templeton , this time addressing the junior watch officer . `` Tell them to be aboard at midnight instead of eight in the morning . '' `` Aye , aye , sir , '' said the junior watch officer , and departed in haste . There was none of the bustle and confusion aboard the U.S.S. Plymouth , at that moment lying idle in a British port , that the landsman would commonly associate with sailing orders to a great destroyer . Blowers began to hum in the fire rooms .