about twenty minutes before five
The order came too soon ; the topsails set flat aback ; the ship was in irons . Even yet , had the helm been reversed , they might have saved her . But to think of a sternboard at all , far more to think of profiting by one , were foreign to the schooner-sailor 's mind . Wicks made haste instead to wear ship , a manoeuvre for which room was wanting , and the _ Flying Scud _ took ground on a bank of sand and coral about twenty minutes before five . Wicks was no hand with a square-rigger , and he had shown it . But he was a sailor and a born captain of men for all homely purposes , where intellect is not required and an eye in a man 's head and a heart under his jacket will suffice . Before the others had time to understand the misfortune , he was bawling fresh orders , and had the sails clewed up , and took soundings round the ship .