midnight
For as long as a day and a half , there were skippers who sat , unrelieved , at the tiller of their boat , an awful weight of responsibility on their shoulders , human lives depending on their nerve and skill . Some of these men had to be carried ashore , when at length they reached safety ; the legs of one were found to be so twisted and wedged in beneath his seat , that it was only with the greatest difficulty and pain that he was got out of the boat . There was one boat that found refuge at Shields on the Sunday . She arrived too late to permit of a telegram being sent announcing her safety , but in time to allow her crew -- or what was left of it -- to catch a late train to the north , and the solemn , echoing tramp of their heavy feet at midnight in the silent street of Eyemouth brought the stricken people from their beds with a start , and with vague apprehension of fresh disaster . But their dread was turned to rejoicing , except for the family of that man who came home never again . In all , on that Sunday night it was known that sixty-four of the men of Eyemouth had perished , and seventy-one were still missing . Of these but a handful ever returned .