David Brockshaw clasped his sister, Kim, to him in an embrace so tight that it made her wince. But she did not make a noise. She saw the smile he had fixed on his lips, and took comfort from it, as she had been comforted by her father when he had lifted her to his chest in the woods. Inwardly, David was sick with fright. He had sailed this shore enough times with his father to know for certain that in this storm the crippled Tub would never make it to the beach. More clearly than the minister, he saw that their only hope was, paradoxically, to be wrecked on the line of rocks extending from the shore. Unless the Tub broke up at once, they ought to be able to climb on to the boulders, even though many of the lower rocks were already awash. The boy saw the minister calling frantically on the radio, and expected there would be help when they reached the beach and started through the forest.

The ripping, grinding crash of the Tub against the outermost rocks sent children tumbling head over heels across the wet, listing decks. There were jolting cracks like pistol shots as brute waves pitched the ship up and thudded it down again and again. In the raging, egg-­beater torrents, the old boat looked like a great horse lifting, rearing up on hind legs and crashing down furiously. Each time the Tub landed on the anvil of the boulders, great holes were ruptured in her groaning timbers and the whole boat creaked and shuddered through the shattering hull.

But the youngsters were agile, and trained to emergency. In a matter of seconds, senior boys had formed a body chain from the cracking ship to the solid rocks. Quickly they followed the youngest children, to help guide them over the slippery, sharp-­edged ledges. The minister, searching the Tub, made sure everyone was safely off. He himself jumped to safety just as a rearing sea lifted the old boat and smashed her down with a final splitting of her worn and weary planks.

The children were washed by waves and spray as they made their way gingerly toward the strip of sand that promised sanctuary. Blasts of wind slammed and turned them. Some slid off the slippery surfaces into the deep turbulent waters, to be yanked back by strong companion arms.