Bits of rigging from the now vanished booms clattered on the wheelhouse windows. Luckily the windows had not been broken.
A gust of wind threw the ship into a wave. Both Evans and the deckhand were torn loose from the wheel.
Evans was thrown into the chart table. He gasped. He could not breathe for several moments.
When he had got his breath back, Evans went to the window. Controlling the wheel was out of the question now. But they were inside the reef and that was good.
Evans held tightly to the railing. He watched the shore as they approached it.
Two tall rocks seemed to rush at him. Evans ducked quickly below the windows. They crashed into the rocks.
The noise was the worst thing. Breaking glass, as several windows broke. The almost human groan of the ship as the hull scraped on the rocks. The wind whistling into the wheelhouse and the thundering of water on the shore.
And then there was comparative quiet.
The wind still whistled and the sea was loud but the ship had stopped all motion.
Evans walked across the angled deck, and he was surprised at what he saw. The ship had been wedged between two rocks on the reef. The starboard side was somewhat lower than the port. The sea was deflected by one of the rocks and waves no longer rolled over the deck.