seven
o'clock
As the wind increased toward morning he felt a sickening certainty that the brave little boat was beaten . Somehow she seemed to lose courage , to waver a bit and almost give tip the fight . He watched her miserably as the dismal dawn came up out of the sea . Yet it was not until seven o'clock that the crash came , which shook the passengers out of their berths and filled them with shivering terror . The whirring of the broken shaft seemed to consume the ship . In every cabin it spoke with terrible vividness of disaster . The clamor of voices and the rush of many feet , which followed , meant but one thing .