about three hours after midday
It may be thought how we watched that one cable that held us from the waves and the place where they broke , for therein lay our only chance , and we longed for the clear light that comes after rain , that we might see the worst , at least , if we were to feel it . But the anchor held , and presently we lost the feeling of a coming terror that had been over us , the utmost peril being past . My father went to the after cabin now , and though the poor children were bruised with the heavy rolling of the ship as she came into the wind , they were all well save Havelok , and he had fallen asleep in my mother 's arms at last . With the turn of the tide , which came about three hours after midday , the clouds broke , and slowly the land grew out of the mists until we could see it plainly , though it was hardly higher than the sea that broke over it in whirling masses of spindrift . By-and-by we could see far-off hills beyond wide-stretching marshlands that looked green and rich across yellow sandhills that fringed the shore . And from them we were not a mile , and at their feet were such breakers as no ship might win through , though , if we might wait until they were at rest , the level sand was good for beaching at the neap tides . For we were well into Humber mouth , and to the northward of us , across the yellow water , was the long point of Spurn , and the ancient port of Ravenspur , with its Roman jetties falling into decay under the careless hand of the Saxon , under its shelter .