midnight
We really were safe for the time and dropped our anchor , glad enough at our escape ; but I saw that the haven could only be of temporary assistance to us , for should the wind shift more to the northwards we would even be in a worse position than when scudding before the gale , as the reef would then be immediately to leeward of us and the gale in our face . `` It would serve no good , however , to meet evil half-way , so as the men were all dead tired out and exhausted with hunger , having eaten nothing since dinner the day before the storm set in , I ordered the provisions to be served out , telling them after that to lie down and have a good sleep in the bottom of the boat while I remained on the watch till morning , having had less exertion than any of them . `` But the poor fellows did not have half so long a rest as that . Towards midnight -- it seemed indeed as if all our misfortunes came at that time -- the pinnace dragged her anchor and drifted on to the reef , when I had to rouse all hands to jump out in the darkness and shove her off again before she knocked a hole in her bottom . Then , no sooner were we afloat again than the wind veered round , just as I had fancied it would do , without the slightest warning , to the northward . `` This of course rendered it impossible for us to remain any longer under the lee of the cliff , our anchorage there being now untenable ; and , putting out to sea again , we bravely endeavoured to ride out the gale in the offing under a close-reefed mainsail and fore-staysail , so as not to be in too close proximity to the reef , which was doubly dangerous to us now . `` Fortune favoured us in the attempt to weather the worst of the storm , until shortly after daybreak ; when , the rollers coming rolling in heavier and more heavily each hour , the poor pinnace sank below the surface of the sea in twenty-five fathoms of water , leaving thirteen of us struggling for our lives some seven miles away from shore . ''