About midnight
He found the barges unsafely bestowed , and suggested to the captain of the Hallam yard tug boat that he should tow them into a securer anchorage . As night was at hand the captain of the tug refused , saying that he would attend to the matter on the morrow . That night the first storm of the winter broke upon the river , lashing it to fury , and threatening with destruction every species of craft that might venture away from moorings . About midnight one of Duncan 's bedroom windows was blown in , scattering glass and fragments of sash over his bed , and startling him out of sleep . Instantly the thought of the exposed coal barges flashed into his mind . He knew that they were utterly unfit to ride out a storm , being nothing more than great oblong boxes , loaded nearly to their gunwales with coal . He remembered , too , the exposed position in which they had been left for the night .