about midday
The weather was freezing cold , with a thick sky , and heavy squalls from the south of west , when she struck on the East Bar , near the main channel . They put down the helm , thinking to slide off ; but she only swung broadside to the waves , and as the tide was at ebb , she was soon hard and fast , with the sea making a clean breach over her . `` Captain Coffin , with the four other men , got into the rigging with a flag of some kind , which they fastened at half mast , as a signal of distress . It was about midday when they ran on the bar , and Bridges saw them , and realized their danger at once ; and their cries for help at times rose above the roar of the ravenous seas . With the help of his wife he launched a light boat , but long before he got into the sweep of the heavier breakers , he saw that she could never live on the bar , and it was with great difficulty that he regained the shore . At nightfall , although the hull was badly shattered , no one had perished , and the tide had so far abated that the party could easily have waded ashore ; and Captain Coffin and another man , after vainly attempting to induce the other three to accompany them , started themselves . `` The others charged them with cowardice in leaving the vessel , said that the wind would go down , and they could get the craft off at flood-tide , and so prevailed over the better judgment of the captain and his companion that they returned to the fated vessel , and prepared , as well as possible , for the returning tide .