Funny enough it does work the same in German and I never lexicalized "erst in der letzten Minute" (only in the last minute) as from "das erste mal" (the first time) and "erstmals" (first-time-ly). Figures that "only" is really "one-ly", but maybe compares to Ger. "ohne" (without), Norse "on" ... English "on" (without). Amazing.

> [only:] From Middle English oonly, onli, onlych, onelich, anely, from Old English ānlīċ, ǣnlīċ (“like; similar; equal”), from Proto-Germanic ainalīkaz, equivalent to one +‎ -ly. Cognate with obsolete Dutch eenlijk, German ähnlich (“similar”), Old Norse álíkr, Swedish enlig (“unified”).

In light of the sentence in question, I wonder how "ähnlich" (similar) compares to "endlich" (finally, surface analysis "end-ly", "ending") historically: The ship finally manouvers in the last minute. Which gives a different tone with opposite meaning.

Given the gloss 'similar' for "only", try "like": The ship, like, maneouvers in the last minute. ... Not quite the same. in fact OE "aenlic" is explainable as 'unlike', too. It has separate meanings. Nevertheless, Ger. "gleich" comes full circle, as it means 'alike' or 'first of all, now, soon', somewhat like 'just' (just the same, just do it), i.e. in "angleichen" (adjust), or German "just in diesem Moment", though this is closer to "gerade" (straight), "gerade in diesem Moment".

Je, jäh, jedoch Est ehst eh du dich versiehst Establish estimate esteem es aus out Eureka eus eu- Finally at last at least mindest min- mint mind mon-ument

"genau" (exact[ly], cp. ') Now narrow. Nur na'ware ... na warte du nur. Na warte. Warte nicht!