midnight
They brought briar pipes with them , which was rather more than we could reasonably have expected . Thereafter nightly visits were the rule , and we became as thick as thieves . We took them to our bosom , and told them of many fresh ways to rob the store-room , though they had no need to go plundering , theirs being a well-found ship . We even went the length of elaborating a concerted and , as we afterwards found , unworkable scheme to get even with a certain policeman who had caught our Munro a clip on the arm with his club when that youngster was singing `` Rule Britannia '' along the Water Front at half-past midnight . In the evenings our respective commanders could be seen leaning across their poop rails , engaged in genial conversation , addressing one another as `` Captain '' in the middle of each sentence with true nautical punctiliousness . Once the ` Torreador 's ' Old Man seemed to be propounding his views on the training of apprentices with great earnestness . What he said we could not hear , but our Old Man replied that he had work enough '' -- to get the young ` sodgers ' to learn to splice a rope , cross a royal-yard , and steer the ship decently , let alone the trouble of keeping them out of the store-room , '' and that he 'd '' -- nae doot but they 'd learn navigation -- in guid time ! ''