ten minutes to one
Midnight and high tide kindled fresh hopes as `` Little Mack '' steeled himself for a last try with the _ Dewey 's _ hardworked engines . Jack and Ted had spent the long evening in the wireless room with Sammy Smith , hearing not so much as a trace of a passing vessel . Eagerly they awaited the last herculean effort for freedom . At ten minutes to one the engines were set in motion again and the signal given to back away as before . Lieutenant McClure had resorted to the expedient of shifting everything movable within the _ Dewey _ to the bow bulkhead in the hope that the submarine might be tilted forward at the supreme moment . Now he ordered every man aboard ship , except the engineering force necessary to operate the engines , into the torpedo chamber forward . `` Whirr-r-r ! ''