stoically he had endured the jibes and grins of the perplexed fishermen as he stood in the small wheelhouse , hands tightly gripping the wheel , casting off with the ungainly , unpractised assistance from his crew of ten , watching them stumble over rope and bollards in their panic to get back on the drifting boat , with a fascinated premonition of disaster in which they would run aground at the mouth of the harbour , or ram other vessels preparing to unload their cargo .