eleven o'clock
`` 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 . `` As the tide rose , the sea came with little , if any , diminution of fury ; and until nearly midnight Bridges watched the signal lantern , which called in vain for the aid which it was not in the power of man to bestow . Intense cold was added to the other horrors of their situation , and the heavy seas came each hour in lessened fury , as the water thickened into ` sludge . ' At eleven o'clock the tide was at its height ; the seas had ceased to sweep across the hogged and sunken hull , and a sheet of thin ice reached from the shore to the vessel 's side . Captain Coffin tried the ice , and , finding that it would bear his weight , decided to try to reach the Blockhouse Light , which shone brightly three miles away . `` He summoned the others ; but two of the others , who had persuaded him to remain on board , were already frozen to death ; the third decided to make the attempt , but walked feebly and with uncertain steps , and about a mile from the vessel succumbed to the piercing cold , falling into that fatal sleep from which few ever waken , in this life at least . Coffin 's companion , a strong , hardy sailor , reached the light-house alive , but swooned away , and could not be resuscitated ; and Coffin barely escaped with his life .