six o'clock
The water was not more than fifty feet deep off the entrance to the channel . Gradually the prow of the Doraine swung around and pointed straight for the cleft in the shore . The ship , two miles out , had responded to the insidious pressure of the current and was being drawn toward the rocks , -- at first so slowly that there was scarcely a ripple off her bows ; then , as she lumbered onward , she began to turn over the water as a ploughshare turns over the land . At precisely six o'clock she slid between the rocky portals and entered a canal so straight and true that it might have been drilled and blasted out of the earth under the direction of the most skilful engineers in the world . Soundings were hastily taken . Discovering that the water was not deep enough even at high tide to submerge the vessel when the inevitable came to pass and she sank to the bottom , Captain Trigger renewed his efforts to release the anchor chains , which had been caught and jammed in the wreckage . He realized the vital necessity for checking the Doraine in her flight before she accomplished the miracle of passing unhindered through the channel and out into the open sea beyond .