midnight
The canvas having been snugly furled , the boats , under the command of the first lieutenant , the master , the boatswain , and the gunner , were manned , armed , and dispatched into the river , the whole expedition being , of course , under the command of Mr Seaton , in whose boat went Peter Christy , one of the midshipmen , while young Keene , another midshipman , contrived to smuggle himself down into the master 's boat . Of course I applied for leave to go with the expedition , but , being on the sick list , was peremptorily forbidden even to dream of such a thing , for Morgan , our surgeon , declared that in my run-down condition I was utterly unfit to face the risks of exposure to the fever-laden fog which would certainly be encountered in the river . The night was not especially favourable for an expedition intended to take ships by surprise ; for although the sky was somewhat cloudy , it was by no means sufficiently so to obscure very materially the light of the moon , which was then in her first quarter . But she would set shortly after midnight , and meanwhile her light would facilitate the passage of the boats across the bar , after the accomplishment of which the plan was to endeavour to discover the position of the vessel that we were after -- or , failing her , any other craft that might be in the river -- and then ambush the boats until the moon had gone down . We gave the boats a cheer as they pulled away , and watched them until they vanished in the shadowy obscurity inshore ; after which , as we expected to see nothing more of them until daylight , the watch was piped down , and going below I turned in . The night , however , was intensely hot , and the atmosphere of the midshipmen 's berth intolerably stuffy . I therefore slept but poorly , and was up and down , at intervals of about an hour , all through the night , listening for the sound of firing , and hoping that perchance the reflection of gun-flashes on the clouds might indicate that the boats had found their quarry .