midnight
The weather was intensely cold for the season ; the air was filled with snow and sleet ; the chilled water made ice rapidly , encumbering the schooner , and loading down her decks and rigging . As the gale increased , the tops of the waves were shorn off by the fierce blasts , clouding the whole atmosphere with frozen spray , or what the sailors call `` spoondrift , '' rendering it impossible to see any object a few rods distant . Driving helplessly before the wind , yet in the direction of her place of destination , the schooner sped through the darkness . At last , near midnight , running closer than her crew supposed to the Canadian shore , she struck on the outer bar off Long Point Island , beat heavily across it , and sunk in the deeper water between it and the inner bar . The hull was entirely submerged , the waves rolling in heavily , and dashing over the rigging , to which the crew betook themselves . Lashed there , numb with cold , drenched by the pitiless waves , and scourged by the showers of sleet driven before the wind , they waited for morning . The slow , dreadful hours wore away , and at length the dubious and doubtful gray of a morning of tempest succeeded to the utter darkness of night .