midnight
The signal for sailing was enforced by gun after gun ; the anchor was hove up , and , with all her stores on deck , her guns not even mounted , in a state of confusion unparalleled from her being obliged to hoist in faster than it was possible she could stow away , she was driven out of harbour to encounter a heavy gale . A few hours more would have enabled her to proceed to sea with security , but they were denied ; the consequences were appalling , and might have been fatal . `` In the general confusion , some iron too near the binnacles had attracted the needle of the compasses ; the ship was steered out of her course . At midnight , in a heavy gale at the close of the month of November , so dark that you could not distinguish any object , however close , the _ Impérieuse _ dashed upon the rocks between Ushant and the Main . The cry of terror which ran through the lower deck ; the grating of the keel as she was forced in ; the violence of the shocks which convulsed the frame of the vessel ; the hurrying up of the ship 's company without their clothes ; and then the enormous waves which again bore her up and carried her clean over the reef , will never be effaced from my memory . `` Our escape was miraculous . With the exception of her false keel having been torn off , the ship had suffered little injury ; but she had beat over a reef , and was riding by her anchors , surrounded by rocks , some of them as high out of water as her lower-yards , and close to her .