ten o'clock
There was a second furious shower of hail , and when that was over I looked forth , and observed that the storm was settling into the north-east , whence I concluded that what draught there might be up there sat in the south-west . Nor was I mistaken ; for half an hour after the first of the outburst , by which time the lightning played weak and at long intervals low down , and the thunder had ceased , I felt a crawling of air coming out of the south-west , which presently briskened into a small steady blowing . But not for long . It freshened yet and yet ; the wrinkles crisped into whiteness on the black heavings ; they grew into small surges with sharp cubbish snarlings preludious of the lion 's voice ; and by ten o'clock it was blowing in strong squalls , the seas rising , and the clouds sailing swiftly in smoke-coloured rags under the stars . The posture of the ice inclined the schooner 's starboard bow to the billows ; and in a very short time she was trembling in every bone to the blows of the surges which rolled boiling over the ice there and struck her , flinging dim clouds of spume in the air , which soon set the scuppers gushing . My case was that of a stranded ship , with this difference only , that a vessel ashore lies solid to the beating of the waves , whereas the ice was buoyant , it rose and fell , sluggishly it is true , and so somewhat mitigated the severity of the shocks of water . But , spite of this , I was perfectly sure that unless the bed broke under her or she slipt off it , she would be in pieces before the morning .