They tried washing her back off.
4 seconds sound clip from the Three Skeleton Key (Escape) classic radio play.
You can hear this line at 00:25:49 in the radio play.
Quote context
[...]
- The light was out. They didn't know.
- I wanted to open the windows to call out to them, to warn them somehow, but... I was afraid.
- What if the rats were hiding from me? Tricking me? So I waited.
- She grounded very softly on a reef not two hundred yards from the key.
- They tried washing her back off.
- I could have told them to save their fuel. The tide was rising, would've floated her free.
- That's all. That's the story.
- The sun came up and there wasn't a rat on the whole key.
[...]