midnight
And then , while we were hard at work , stuffing up the holes where the water was pouring in , and pumping , there was an awful stramash on deck ; for there was the land again , close aboard of us ahead . ` Wear ship ! ' was now the cry , and away went the little hooker again on the other tack , and bravely did she behave -- a better sea-boat never swam ; for , battered and knocked about as she was , she showed true pluck ; no sooner was she knocked over by a sea , than she rose again like a duck , though she was forced to shake her feathers now and then . Well , at eight-bells in the first watch -LRB- midnight -RRB- , we thought it was all up with us again , for there was the surf breaking on the rocks little more than half-a-mile on the lee-bow -- and touch-and-go it was ; but our tight little barky -- though she was anything but tight by that time -- though she lay over till she was half buried alive , looked boldly up in the wind , and shot past like a sea-bird . If there had n't been such a devil of a noise , you might have heard a pin drop just then . There was not a man on deck who did not hold his breath , and gasp , when the danger was past , like one that 's just escaped drowning . '' ` By the powers ! '