Lois M Parker

Admiral Somers steered directly for the line of reef. He had little choice. Better to break up on the reef at the edge of the smoother water than to sink in the ocean depths. The sweating bucket crews labored frantically to delay their fate.

Ugly black coral teeth thrust up through the waves ahead of them, almost as if they eagerly waited to seize and bite into the ship's hull. After the wild storm they had already written through, the sea crashing over the reef almost seemed millpond calm. Now an immense swell gathered, lifting the ship higher and higher; and the giant wave deposited the Sea Venture between two of the black spires with the crackling of timber. Captain Newport flinched and sighed. "That is the end of my good ship."… (altro)