as a guess, "hog-eyed means 'high on opium
see<'https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842> the chinese lighters used for unloading cargo(in this case opium) have eyes painted o them,sd a hogeye man might be a master of one of these vessels or maybe the"bumboats" which ferried working girls(who nay well have sold opium as a sideline) out to large ships for the crews recreation.Navvies were commonly not just"niggers" but Irish, Chinese Kanakas and filipinos, certainly poorly paid labourers-although they seem to have had sufficient pay to spend on recreation in the bars plentiful in ports