midnight
She came to an anchor , correctly by the chart , off the Brenzett Coastguard station . I remember before the night fell looking out again at the outlines of her spars and rigging that stood out dark and pointed on a background of ragged , slaty clouds like another and a slighter spire to the left of the Brenzett church-tower . In the evening the wind rose . At midnight I could hear in my bed the terrific gusts and the sounds of a driving deluge . `` About that time the Coastguardmen thought they saw the lights of a steamer over the anchoring-ground . In a moment they vanished ; but it is clear that another vessel of some sort had tried for shelter in the bay on that awful , blind night , had rammed the German ship amidships -LRB- a breach -- as one of the divers told me afterwards -- ` that you could sail a Thames barge through ' -RRB- , and then had gone out either scathless or damaged , who shall say ; but had gone out , unknown , unseen , and fatal , to perish mysteriously at sea . Of her nothing ever came to light , and yet the hue and cry that was raised all over the world would have found her out if she had been in existence anywhere on the face of the waters .