nine o'clock
`` Starboard your helm ! '' shouted the mate , at the same moment springing to the tiller of his own vessel . The steersman of the driving vessel fortunately heard and obeyed the order , and she passed -- but shaved the bow of the Gull so closely that one of the men declared he could easily have jumped aboard of her . Again , at nine o'clock , there was a stir on board the floating light , for another vessel was seen driving towards her . This one was a brig. The foremast was gone , and the remains of a tar-barrel were still burning on her deck , but as none of the crew could be seen , it was conjectured that some other ship must have run foul of her , and they had escaped on board of it . All hands were again called , the tiller was cast loose , a wide sheer given to the Gull , and the brig went past them at about the distance of a ship-length . She went slowly by , owing , it was afterwards ascertained , to the fact that she had ninety fathoms of cable trailing from her bows .