seven o'clock
At the club , over a tumbler of warm toddy , Randulf would confide to his friends how sad it was to see so splendid a seaman as Jacob Worse spoilt by a pack of women . He used to wind up his lamentations with `` that confounded tub of a ship from Rostock , '' alluding to the Rostock trader , with which he had been in collision at Bolderaa . It was his firm belief that if he , Randulf , had been at home , they should never have trapped Jacob Worse . At seven o'clock they turned back to Randulf 's little house , in high spirits , and ravenously hungry . When they had again eaten -- and Worse had not had such an appetite for many a day -- they took their steaming tumblers of toddy to the open window , and the blue smoke of their pipes came puffing out like cannon shots , first from the one and then from the other , like two frigates saluting . After they had smoked on awhile in silence , Worse said : `` The sea can be very fine on such a summer evening . Your health . ''