eight o'clock
Certainly , their chances of escape now seemed more hopeful ! No time , however , was to be lost ; for , although their haven of refuge , the stern section of the ship , was high up on the reef and almost out of reach of the remorseless waves that had already done such damage , still there was no knowing what another tide would effect if the wind should again get up . It behoved them all therefore to take advantage of the opportunity afforded them and make their preparations for getting ashore before it should be too late . Thus urged , the seamen , working with a will under the supervision of Mr McCarthy and Adams , had completed a substantial raft by eight o'clock , at which hour a spell was cried and all hands piped to breakfast . Meanwhile , the morning had advanced ; and the sky being pretty free from clouds , Mr Meldrum was able to obtain a good view of the land that surrounded the bay in which the _ Nancy Bell _ had come to grief . The ship had , evidently , not merely been carried to leeward of the cape by the strong current before striking , but had also been taken some distance inshore as well ; for the reef on which she was lying seemed more than two miles to the eastward of the projecting point which she had so much difficulty in rounding , close in to a range of rock-bound coast similar to that which they had passed to the northward and extending almost due east for from eight to ten miles -- as nearly as Mr Meldrum could judge -- the line of the shore then trending off to the south-west at an acute angle , as far as the eye could reach . High above this latter stretch of coast rose a series of snow-crowned hills , arranged in terraces the one above another , gradually increasing in height until their peaks culminated in one that towered far beyond all , like a giant amongst pigmies ; while , to the right of this mountain , and apparently much nearer , on a spur of the chain projecting into the sea nearly south of the vessel 's position , was one solitary peak , which occasionally emitted thin columns of smoke and which , from the fact of its summit being denuded of snow , most likely marked the site of some volcanic crater in active operation .