{ Those in Peril on the Sea } devilfern x d0ll

07-01-2010, 10:48 PM

It was a catastrophic storm. The sea churned, beaten by the feverish wind. The slate gray waters grew in larger and larger waves, collapsing on itself, only to rise higher. Those who watched the chaos on land shuddered and thanked God that they were not on the heaving waters. Those who were at sea struggled for their lives and those of their comrades, fighting wave and wind for survival.
The coastal city of Portsmouth was a mess of rain, wind, and people. People struggling to get their belongings out of the wind, people hurrying to the safety of the homes. The water booming on the coast was loud enough to hear over the wind, an unsettling beat that drove everyone faster.
Deckhands were furiously working to protect the ships, which were rolling with the heaving waters. Officers shouted, men swore as they hauled on ropes. No one noticed the small vessel floundering a ways away in the rain. The little ship bore no flags, or perhaps they had been torn off by the wind. Its zigzagged in an erratic course, driven only by the power of the tossing water. Hidden by the rain, it moved farther and farther from the port, until it collided with a huge outcropping of rock about half a mile from the city's edge. Wood creaked and smashed, and the ship bowled over with the power of the impact. Water flooded in, and beaten into submission by the powerful storm, it settled. Torn by the crash and hopelessly ruined, it lay half on the stony beach and half on the jagged rocks, one of the many casualties of the horrific storm.