ten o'clock
`` Throw the guns overboard as well as much of the weighty cargo , '' he cried , `` and set the pumps a-going . '' Mr. Holmes , having sufficiently recovered to realize the wisdom of the course pursued by Stevens , joined him in his entreaties , and they got the captain and some of his crew to make one more effort . The water , however , gained on the pumps , and it seemed as if they would not long be able to keep the vessel afloat . At ten o'clock , the wind had increased to a hurricane ; the sky was so entirely obscured with black clouds , and the rain poured in such torrents , that objects could not be discerned from the wheel to the ship 's head . Soon the pumps were choked and could be no longer worked . Then dismay seized on all , and nothing but unutterable despair , anguish and horror , wrought up to frenzy , were to be seen . Not a single person was capable of an effort to be useful ; all seemed more desirous to terminate their calamities in an embrace of death , than willing , by a painful exertion , to avoid it .